Ab initio optimization of phonon drag effect for lower-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion
Although the thermoelectric figure of merit zT above 300 K has seen significant improvement recently, the progress at lower temperatures has been slow, mainly limited by the relatively low Seebeck coefficient and high thermal conductivity. Here we report, for the first time to our knowledge, success...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103880 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0898-0803 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8492-2261 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0865-8096 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3968-8530 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9872-5688 |
| _version_ | 1826196141248610304 |
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| author | Zhou, Jiawei Liao, Bolin Qiu, Bo Huberman, Samuel C. Esfarjani, Keivan Dresselhaus, Mildred Chen, Gang |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Zhou, Jiawei Liao, Bolin Qiu, Bo Huberman, Samuel C. Esfarjani, Keivan Dresselhaus, Mildred Chen, Gang |
| author_sort | Zhou, Jiawei |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Although the thermoelectric figure of merit zT above 300 K has seen significant improvement recently, the progress at lower temperatures has been slow, mainly limited by the relatively low Seebeck coefficient and high thermal conductivity. Here we report, for the first time to our knowledge, success in first-principles computation of the phonon drag effect-a coupling phenomenon between electrons and nonequilibrium phonons-in heavily doped region and its optimization to enhance the Seebeck coefficient while reducing the phonon thermal conductivity by nanostructuring. Our simulation quantitatively identifies the major phonons contributing to the phonon drag, which are spectrally distinct from those carrying heat, and further reveals that although the phonon drag is reduced in heavily doped samples, a significant contribution to Seebeck coefficient still exists. An ideal phonon filter is proposed to enhance zT of silicon at room temperature by a factor of 20 to ∼0.25, and the enhancement can reach 70 times at 100 K. This work opens up a new venue toward better thermoelectrics by harnessing nonequilibrium phonons. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:21:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/103880 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:21:32Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1038802022-09-26T17:25:47Z Ab initio optimization of phonon drag effect for lower-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion Zhou, Jiawei Liao, Bolin Qiu, Bo Huberman, Samuel C. Esfarjani, Keivan Dresselhaus, Mildred Chen, Gang Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Chen, Gang Zhou, Jiawei Liao, Bolin Qiu, Bo Huberman, Samuel C. Dresselhaus, Mildred Chen, Gang Although the thermoelectric figure of merit zT above 300 K has seen significant improvement recently, the progress at lower temperatures has been slow, mainly limited by the relatively low Seebeck coefficient and high thermal conductivity. Here we report, for the first time to our knowledge, success in first-principles computation of the phonon drag effect-a coupling phenomenon between electrons and nonequilibrium phonons-in heavily doped region and its optimization to enhance the Seebeck coefficient while reducing the phonon thermal conductivity by nanostructuring. Our simulation quantitatively identifies the major phonons contributing to the phonon drag, which are spectrally distinct from those carrying heat, and further reveals that although the phonon drag is reduced in heavily doped samples, a significant contribution to Seebeck coefficient still exists. An ideal phonon filter is proposed to enhance zT of silicon at room temperature by a factor of 20 to ∼0.25, and the enhancement can reach 70 times at 100 K. This work opens up a new venue toward better thermoelectrics by harnessing nonequilibrium phonons. United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative, AFOSR MURI FA9550-10-1-0533) United States. Dept. of Energy (S3TEC Energy Frontier Research Center, Award DE-SC0001299/DE-FG02-09ER46577) 2016-08-10T16:15:31Z 2016-08-10T16:15:31Z 2015-11 2015-06 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0027-8424 1091-6490 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103880 Zhou, Jiawei, Bolin Liao, Bo Qiu, Samuel Huberman, Keivan Esfarjani, Mildred S. Dresselhaus, and Gang Chen. "Ab initio optimization of phonon drag effect for lower-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112:48 (December 2015), pp.14777–14782. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0898-0803 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8492-2261 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0865-8096 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3968-8530 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9872-5688 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1512328112 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) PNAS |
| spellingShingle | Zhou, Jiawei Liao, Bolin Qiu, Bo Huberman, Samuel C. Esfarjani, Keivan Dresselhaus, Mildred Chen, Gang Ab initio optimization of phonon drag effect for lower-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion |
| title | Ab initio optimization of phonon drag effect for lower-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion |
| title_full | Ab initio optimization of phonon drag effect for lower-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion |
| title_fullStr | Ab initio optimization of phonon drag effect for lower-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ab initio optimization of phonon drag effect for lower-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion |
| title_short | Ab initio optimization of phonon drag effect for lower-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion |
| title_sort | ab initio optimization of phonon drag effect for lower temperature thermoelectric energy conversion |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103880 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0898-0803 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8492-2261 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0865-8096 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3968-8530 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9872-5688 |
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