Temperature-dependent thermal and thermoelectric properties of n-type and p-type Sc1−xMgxN

作     者：Bivas Saha Jaime Andres Perez-Taborda Je-Hyeong Bahk Yee Rui Koh Ali Shakouri Marisol Martin-Gonzalez Timothy D. Sands 

作者机构：Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of California Berkeley California 94720 USA Instituto de Microelectrónica de Madrid CSIC C/ Isaac Newton 8 Tres Cantos 28760 Madrid Spain Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering University of Cincinnati Cincinnati Ohio 45221 USA School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 47907 USA Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering Virginia Tech Blacksburg Virginia 24061 USA 

出 版 物：《Physical Review B》 (Phys. Rev. B)

年 卷 期：2018年第97卷第8期

页      面：085301-085301页

核心收录：

基　　金：National Science Foundation Family Process Institute European Commission, EC National Science Foundation, NSF European Research Council, ERC U.S. Department of Energy, DOE, (CBET-1048616) Seventh Framework Programme, FP7, (240497) ERC Starting, (NanoTEC 240497) INFANTE, (201550E072) 

主　　题：Semiconductors Thermal conductivity Alloys Thin films 

摘      要：Scandium Nitride (ScN) is an emerging rocksalt semiconductor with octahedral coordination and an indirect bandgap. ScN has attracted significant attention in recent years for its potential thermoelectric applications, as a component material in epitaxial metal/semiconductor superlattices, and as a substrate for defect-free GaN growth. Sputter-deposited ScN thin films are highly degenerate n-type semiconductors and exhibit a large thermoelectric power factor of ∼3.5×10−3W/m−K2 at 600–800 K. Since practical thermoelectric devices require both n- and p-type materials with high thermoelectric figures-of-merit, development and demonstration of highly efficient p-type ScN is extremely important. Recently, the authors have demonstrated p-type Sc1−xMgxN thin film alloys with low MgxNy mole-fractions within the ScN matrix. In this article, we demonstrate temperature dependent thermal and thermoelectric transport properties, including large thermoelectric power factors in both n- and p-type Sc1−xMgxN thin film alloys at high temperatures (up to 850 K). Employing a combination of temperature-dependent Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity measurements, as well as detailed Boltzmann transport-based modeling analyses of the transport properties, we demonstrate that p-type Sc1−xMgxN thin film alloys exhibit a maximum thermoelectric power factor of ∼0.8×10−3W/m−K2 at 850 K. The thermoelectric properties are tunable by adjusting the MgxNy mole-fraction inside the ScN matrix, thereby shifting the Fermi energy in the alloy films from inside the conduction band in case of undoped n-type ScN to inside the valence band in highly hole-doped p-type Sc1−xMgxN thin film alloys. The thermal conductivities of both the n- and p-type films were found to be undesirably large for thermoelectric applications. Thus, future work should address strategies to reduce the thermal conductivity of Sc1−xMgxN thin-film alloys, without affecting the power factor for improved