| Issue |
EPL
Volume 87, Number 5, September 2009
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 57009 | |
| Number of page(s) | 4 | |
| Section | Condensed Matter: Electronic Structure, Electrical, Magnetic and Optical Properties | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/87/57009 | |
| Published online | 24 September 2009 | |
Thermoelectric performance of weakly coupled granular materials
1
Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory - Argonne, IL 60439, USA
2
Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University Northridge - Northridge, CA 91330, USA
Received:
7
July
2009
Accepted:
26
August
2009
We study thermoelectric properties of inhomogeneous nanogranular materials
for weak tunneling conductance between the grains, 
. We calculate the thermopower and figure of merit taking into
account the shift of the chemical potential and the asymmetry of the density of states in
the vicinity of the Fermi surface. We show that the weak coupling between the grains leads
to a high thermopower and low thermal conductivity resulting in relatively high values of
the figure of merit on the order of one. We estimate the temperature at which the figure of
merit has its maximum value for two- and three-dimensional samples. Our results are applicable
for many emerging materials, including artificially self-assembled nanoparticle arrays.
PACS: 73.63.-b – Electronic transport in nanoscale materials and structures / 72.15.Jf – Thermoelectric and thermomagnetic effects / 73.23.Hk – Coulomb blockade; single electron tunneling
© EPLA, 2009
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