Effect of alternate layers of bi2te3-sb2te3 thin films on structural, optical and thermoelectric properties

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for the development of new thermoelectric materials with high figure of merit. This is due to the fact that convectional energy generating methods causes many environmental problems. Thermoelectric materials have capacity to harvest waste energy as they convert directly any type of waste heat into electricity. Telluride based materials are known as best thermoelectric materials as they have high figure of merit. Present work is based on multilayered structure of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and antimony telluride (Sb2Te3) thin films. In this work thin film of single layered Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, their bilayers (Bi2Te3-Sb2Te3), 5 layers and 10 layers have been deposited on clean glass substrate by e-beam evaporation method. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) has been done for the characterization of these thin films. In this paper, studies of electrical properties are also reported which have been carried out by Hall and I-V measurements while optical properties have been studied by employing by UV – Vis spectrometer. Thermoelectric characteristics have been measured by laboratory thermoelectric measurement setup.