Ultrathin MEMS thermoelectric generator with Bi2Te3/(Pt, Au) multilayers and Sb2Te3 legs
Yang Liu, Erzhen Mu, Zhenhua Wu, Zhanxun Che, Fangyuan Sun, Xuecheng Fu, Fengdan Wang, Xinwei Wang, Zhiyu Hu
Abstract
Abstract Multilayer structure is one of the research focuses of thermoelectric (TE) material in recent years. In this work, n-type 800 nm Bi 2 Te 3 /(Pt, Au) multilayers are designed with p-type Sb 2 Te 3 legs to fabricate ultrathin microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) TE devices. The power factor of the annealed Bi 2 Te 3 /Pt multilayer reaches 46.5 μW cm −1 K −2 at 303 K, which corresponds to more than a 350% enhancement when compared to pristine Bi 2 Te 3 . The annealed Bi 2 Te 3 /Au multilayers have a lower power factor than pristine Bi 2 Te 3 . The power of the device with Sb 2 Te 3 and Bi 2 Te 3 /Pt multilayers measures 20.9 nW at 463 K and the calculated maximum output power reaches 10.5 nW, which is 39.5% higher than the device based on Sb 2 Te 3 and Bi 2 Te 3 , and 96.7% higher than the Sb 2 Te 3 and Bi 2 Te 3 /Au multilayers one. This work can provide an opportunity to improve TE properties by using multilayer structures and novel ultrathin MEMS TE devices in a wide variety of applications.