Versatile Seebeck and electrical resistivity measurement setup for thin films

Abstract

A custom setup for Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity measurements of thin films as a function of temperature in the range of 10-300 K was developed. The Seebeck coefficient is measured using a two-probe arrangement and using either a dynamical or steady/quasi-steady differential method. The temperature differences (ΔTs) for these measurements across the samples are achieved by using resistive heaters embedded in two copper blocks. The sample is screwed to these blocks and is in pressured contact with the measurement probes. The electrical resistivity is measured with a two-probe arrangement. To verify the reliability of the developed setup, measurement tests were performed on commercial niobium foil and a specular spin valve previously studied, having obtained a great accordance (within ∼3%) between this setup's experimental results and the reference measurements.