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  4. Efficient Photothermoelectric Conversion in Lateral Topological Insulator Heterojunctions
 
research article

Efficient Photothermoelectric Conversion in Lateral Topological Insulator Heterojunctions

Mashhadi, Soudabeh
•
Dinh, Loc Duong
•
Burghard, Marko  
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2017
Nano Letters

Tuning the electron and phonon transport properties of thermoelectric materials by nanostructuring has enabled improving their thermopower figure of merit. Three-dimensional topological insulators, including many bismuth chalcogenides, attract increasing attention for this purpose, as their topologically protected surface states are promising to further enhance the thermoelectric performance. While individual bismuth chalcogenide nanostructures have been studied with respect to their photothermoelectric properties, nanostructured p-n junctions of these compounds have not yet been explored. Here, we experimentally investigate the room temperature thermoelectric conversion capability of lateral heterostructures consisting of two different three-dimensional topological insulators, namely, the n-type doped Bi2Te2Se and the p-type doped Sb2Te3. Scanning photocurrent microscopy of the nanoplatelets reveals efficient thermoelectric conversion at the p-n heterojunction, exploiting hot carriers of opposite sign in the two materials. From the photocurrent data, a Seebeck coefficient difference of Delta S = 200 mu V/K was extracted, in accordance with the best values reported for the corresponding bulk materials. Furthermore, it is in very good agreement with the value of Delta S = 185 mu V/K obtained by DFT calculation taking into account the specific doping levels of the two nanostructured components.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b03851
Web of Science ID

WOS:000392036600031

Author(s)
Mashhadi, Soudabeh
Dinh, Loc Duong
Burghard, Marko  
Kern, Klaus  
Date Issued

2017

Publisher

Amer Chemical Soc

Published in
Nano Letters
Volume

17

Issue

1

Start page

214

End page

219

Subjects

Thermopower

•

thermoelectric conversion

•

topological insulator

•

lateral heterostructure

•

p-n heterojunction

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

OTHER

EPFL units
LSEN  
Available on Infoscience
February 17, 2017
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/134573
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