Thermoelectric Properties of Nanostructured Material Based on Si and GaSb

Abstract

Successively forming GaSb islands by solid-phase epitaxy and covering them with a silicon layer, a nanostructured material containing 4 layers of GaSb nanocrystals (NCs) was grown on Si (111) surface. Due to a small size of the NCs (average height ~ 1.7 nm, average lateral size ~ 14 nm) and, as a consequence, to a significant quantum-size effect, a high electrical conductivity (~ 100 Ω-1·cm-1at 600 K) together with a low thermal conductivity (~ 1 – 1.5 W·m-1·K-1at 600 K) was obtained in the nanostructured material Si/NC_GaSb/Si. As a result, the thermoelectric figure of merit of the material has reached 0.82 at 600 K.