Quantum-Confinement-Enhanced Thermoelectric Properties in Modulation-Doped GaAs-AlGaAs Core-Shell Nanowires

Sergej Fust, Anton Faustmann, Damon J. Carrad, Jochen Bissinger, Bernhard Loitsch, Markus Doeblinger, Jonathan Becker, Gerhard Abstreiter, Jonathan J. Finley, Gregor Koblmueller

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nanowires (NWs) hold great potential in advanced thermoelectrics due to their reduced dimensions and low-dimensional electronic character. However, unfavorable links between electrical and thermal conductivity in state-of-the-art unpassivated NWs have, so far, prevented the full exploitation of their distinct advantages. A promising model system for a surface-passivated one-dimensional (1D)-quantum confined NW thermoelectric is developed that enables simultaneously the observation of enhanced thermopower via quantum oscillations in the thermoelectric transport and a strong reduction in thermal conductivity induced by the core–shell heterostructure. High-mobility modulation-doped GaAs/AlGaAs core–shell NWs with thin (sub-40 nm) GaAs NW core channel are employed, where the electrical and thermoelectric transport is characterized on the same exact 1D-channel. 1D-sub-band transport at low temperature is verified by a discrete stepwise increase in the conductance, which coincided with strong oscillations in the corresponding Seebeck voltage that decay with increasing sub-band number. Peak Seebeck coefficients as high as ≈65–85 µV K−1 are observed for the lowest sub-bands, resulting in equivalent thermopower of S2σ ≈ 60 µW m−1 K−2 and S2G ≈ 0.06 pW K−2 within a single sub-band. Remarkably, these core–shell NW heterostructures also exhibit thermal conductivities as low as ≈3 W m−1 K−1, about one order of magnitude lower than state-of-the-art unpassivated GaAs NWs.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1905458
JournalAdvanced Materials
ISSN0935-9648
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2020

Keywords

  • nanowires
  • quantum transport
  • Raman spectroscopy
  • thermal conductivity
  • thermoelectrics

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