Atomic Layer-by-Layer Thermoelectric Conversion in Topological Insulator Bismuth/Antimony Tellurides

Material design for direct heat-to-electricity conversion with substantial efficiency essentially requires cooperative control of electrical and thermal transport. Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and antimony telluride (Sb2Te3), displaying the highest thermoelectric power at room temperature, are also kn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nano letters 2014-07, Vol.14 (7), p.4030-4035
Main Authors: Sung, Ji Ho, Heo, Hoseok, Hwang, Inchan, Lim, Myungsoo, Lee, Donghun, Kang, Kibum, Choi, Hee Cheul, Park, Jae-Hoon, Jhi, Seung-Hoon, Jo, Moon-Ho
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antimony
Bismuth tellurides
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties
Conversion
Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures
Electronic structure of nanoscale materials : clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals
Electronic transport in multilayers, nanoscale materials and structures
Exact sciences and technology
Insulators
Lattice dynamics
Phonons in low-dimensional structures and small particles
Physics
Tellurides
Thermoelectricity
Topology
Transport
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Summary:Material design for direct heat-to-electricity conversion with substantial efficiency essentially requires cooperative control of electrical and thermal transport. Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and antimony telluride (Sb2Te3), displaying the highest thermoelectric power at room temperature, are also known as topological insulators (TIs) whose electronic structures are modified by electronic confinements and strong spin–orbit interaction in a-few-monolayers thickness regime, thus possibly providing another degree of freedom for electron and phonon transport at surfaces. Here, we explore novel thermoelectric conversion in the atomic monolayer steps of a-few-layer topological insulating Bi2Te3 (n-type) and Sb2Te3 (p-type). Specifically, by scanning photoinduced thermoelectric current imaging at the monolayer steps, we show that efficient thermoelectric conversion is accomplished by optothermal motion of hot electrons (Bi2Te3) and holes (Sb2Te3) through 2D subbands and topologically protected surface states in a geometrically deterministic manner. Our discovery suggests that the thermoelectric conversion can be interiorly achieved at the atomic steps of a homogeneous medium by direct exploiting of quantum nature of TIs, thus providing a new design rule for the compact thermoelectric circuitry at the ultimate size limit.
ISSN:1530-6984
1530-6992
DOI:10.1021/nl501468k