Thermal and Electrical Characterization of Zn-Cu Ferrites Thin Films

Abstract

The effects of Zn and Cu on the thermoelectric properties of ferrite thin films were studied in this paper. The Zn-Cu ferritethin film was fabricated using ink-jet printing method. A minimum of 50 print cycles was required to obtain continuous film with approximately 9 μm thick thin films. The thickness of Zn-Cu ferrite thin films was decreased with increasing sintering temperature from 200 oC (9.21 μm) to 400 oC (5.48 μm). The XRD traces of ZnxCu1-xFe2O4 exhibit as plane reflection for cubic spinel phase of ZnxCu1-xFe2O4 and there were no impurity peaks detected with increasing Zn content and sintering temperature. The electrical conductivity of ZnxCu1-xFe2O4 thin film decreased from 1.18x10-3 S/cm (x=0.0) to 0.48x10-3 S/cm (x=1.0) with increasing Zn content. Positive Seebeck values were observed for all the samples, which indicated the samples were p-type. The Seebeck coefficient of ZnxCu1-xFe2O4 thin film increased from 6.36 μV/K (x=0.0) to 17.46 μV/K (x=1.0) with increasing Zn content.