Thermoelectric properties of monolayer α-Te: Low lattice thermal conductivity and extremely high dimensionless figure of merit

Publication date: Available online 3 January 2020Source: Physics Letters AAuthor(s): Xia Jiang, Lin Zhu, Bowen Li, Kailun YaoAbstractWe have investigated the thermoelectric properties of monolayer α-Te by the first-principles and the Boltzmann transport theory. The results show that monolayer α-Te is an indirect bandgap semiconductor with a moderate bandgap of 0.63 eV. The value of the Seebeck coefficient for monolayer α-Te is larger than 200 μVK−1, the electrical conductivity has the magnitude of 1×106. The lattice thermal conductivity is smaller than 4 Wm−1K−1, which is extremely low. Instructively, the dimensionless figure of merit for monolayer α-Te is more than 4, which is markedly high. The above phenomena imply that monolayer α-Te can be served as a considerable thermoelectric material with excellent thermoelectric conversion efficiency.

Source: Physics Letters A - January 5, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research