Generalized drift-diffusion for microscopic thermoelectricity

Although thermoelectric elements increasingly incorporate nano-scale features in similar material systems as other micro-electronic devices, the former are described in the language of irreversible thermodynamics while devices such as heterojunction bipolar transistors and semiconductor lasers are often described with the drift-diffusion equations. We present a microscopic description of the thermoelectric effects using a generalization of the common drift-diffusion formulation of semi-classical transport. We then replicate these basic results in a commerical device simulation package to explore Peltier cooling at a basic p-n junction. This framework should enable the design of spatially-inhomogenenous thermoelectric elements and internally-cooled micro-electronic devices.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Santhanam, Parthiban

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Rajeev J. Ram.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

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

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/53321

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/53321