Size dependent thermoelectric properties of silicon nanowires

Atomistic Analysis of Thermoelectric Properties of Silicon Nanowires

The spds-spin-orbit-coupled tight-binding model and linearized Boltzmann transport theory is applied to calculate the electrical conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient, and the power factor of silicon nanowires (NWs) with diameters D<12nm. Using experimentally measured values for the lattice thermal conductivity we estimate the room temperature thermoelectric figure of merit to be ZT~1. Keywords...

Size-Dependent Transport and Thermoelectric Properties of Individual Polycrystalline Bismuth Nanowires

Thermoelectric materials convert a temperature difference into electricity and vice versa. Such materials utilize the Seebeck effect for power generation and the Peltier effect for cooling. In the Seebeck effect, a temperature difference across a material causes the diffusion of charged carriers across that gradient, thus creating a voltage difference between the hot and cold ends of the materi...

Improve thermoelectric efficiency of silicon nanowires

Thermoelectric properties of superlattice nanowires

We report here on a theoretical model for the electronic structure and transport properties of superlattice nanowires, considering their cylindrical wire boundary and multiple anisotropic carrier pockets. The thermoelectric properties of superlattice nanowires made of various lead salts ~PbS, PbSe, and PbTe! are investigated as a function of the segment length, wire diameter, crystal orientatio...

Mechanics of Silicon Nanowires: Size-Dependent Elasticity From First Principles

We review our recent work on the mechanics of silicon nanowires based on first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We focus especially on the size dependence of the Young’s modulus, but also comment on the size dependence of the residual stress and the equilibrium length of the hydrogen-passivated Si nanowires. We compare these results to prior results from classical molecu...