Electron mean-free-path filtering in Dirac material for improved thermoelectric performance

Recent advancements in thermoelectric materials have largely benefited from various approaches, including band engineering and defect optimization, among which the nanostructuring technique presents a promising way to improve the thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) by means of reducing the character...

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Main Authors: Liu, Te Huan (Contributor), Zhou, Jiawei (Contributor), Li, Mingda (Contributor), Ding, Zhiwei (Contributor), Song, Qichen (Contributor), Fu, Liang (Contributor), Chen, Gang (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: National Academy of Sciences (U.S.), 2018-10-12T16:39:56Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Liu, Te Huan  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Liu, Te Huan  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Zhou, Jiawei  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Li, Mingda  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Ding, Zhiwei  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Song, Qichen  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Fu, Liang  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Chen, Gang  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Zhou, Jiawei  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Li, Mingda  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Ding, Zhiwei  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Song, Qichen  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Fu, Liang  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Chen, Gang  |e author 
245 0 0 |a Electron mean-free-path filtering in Dirac material for improved thermoelectric performance 
260 |b National Academy of Sciences (U.S.),   |c 2018-10-12T16:39:56Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118460 
520 |a Recent advancements in thermoelectric materials have largely benefited from various approaches, including band engineering and defect optimization, among which the nanostructuring technique presents a promising way to improve the thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) by means of reducing the characteristic length of the nanostructure, which relies on the belief that phonons' mean free paths (MFPs) are typically much longer than electrons'. Pushing the nanostructure sizes down to the length scale dictated by electron MFPs, however, has hitherto been overlooked as it inevitably sacrifices electrical conduction. Here we report through ab initio simulations that Dirac material can overcome this limitation. The monotonically decreasing trend of the electron MFP allows filtering of long-MFP electrons that are detrimental to the Seebeck coefficient, leading to a dramatically enhanced power factor. Using SnTe as a material platform, we uncover this MFP filtering effect as arising from its unique nonparabolic Dirac band dispersion. Room-temperature zT can be enhanced by nearly a factor of 3 if one designs nanostructures with grain sizes of ∼10 nm. Our work broadens the scope of the nanostructuring approach for improving the thermoelectric performance, especially for materials with topologically nontrivial electronic dynamics. Keywords: Dirac material; electrom mean-free-path filtering; thermoelectrics; nanostructuring approach; electron-phonon interactions 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences