First-principles study of phonon drag effect in SiGe alloys

Thermoelectric materials with large figures of merit zT ([mathematical equation], where S, T, [sigma], K are the Seebeck coefficient, absolute temperature, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity) are promising candidate materials for efficient solid-state devices for electricity generation, cooling and refrigeration. Over the past decades, there has been great progress in enhancing the zT values of thermoelectric materials above 300K, but not much in thermoelectric performance below room temperature due to the relatively small Seebeck coefficient and high thermal conductivity at low temperatures, which limits the efficiency of thermoelectric coolers and refrigerators. First discovered in the 1950s, phonon drag effect describes the phenomenon that the Seebeck coefficients of semiconductors are often enormously augmented at low temperatures.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Xu, Qian,S. M.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gang Chen.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121862

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/121862