Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Physics

Committee Chair

Seyed Sadeghi

Committee Member

Satilmis Budak

Committee Member

Don A. Gregory

Committee Member

A. M. Elsamadicy

Subject(s)

Thermoelectricity, Thermoelectric apparatus and appliances, Semiconductors

Abstract

Thermoelectric generators convert heat to electricity. A low thermal and a high electrical conductivity are characteristics of thermoelectric materials and devices. The efficiency of thermoelectric materials and devices is quantified by dimensionless figure of merit ZT=TS^2&sigma/&kappa where S is the Seebeck coefficient, &sigma is the electrical conductivity, T is the absolute temperature in Kelvin, and &kappa is the thermal conductivity. Multilayer thin films with 100 alternating layers of SiO2/SiO2+Ge, 50 alternating layers of Si/Si+Sb, and 40 alternating layers of Si/Si+Ge superlattice thin films have been prepared by using ion beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) and DC/RF Sputtering in order to study thermoelectric power generation. Raman Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy for surface morphology, and annealing techniques were applied. The thermoelectric and transport features have been characterized for SiO2/SiO2+Ge, Si/Si+Sb, Si/Si+Ge superlattice thin films.

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