Quantum-Confinement-Enhanced Thermoelectric Properties in Modulation-Doped GaAs–AlGaAs Core–Shell Nanowires

Abstract

Nanowires (NWs) hold great potential in advanced thermoelectrics due to their reduced dimensions and low-dimensional electronic character. However, unfavorable links between electrical and thermal conductivity in state-of-the-art unpassivated NWs have, so far, prevented the full exploitation of their distinct advantages. A promising model system for a surface-passivated one-dimensional (1D)-quantum confined NW thermoelectric is developed that enables simultaneously the observation of enhanced thermopower via quantum oscillations in the thermoelectric transport and a strong reduction in thermal conductivity induced by the core–shell heterostructure. High-mobility modulation-doped GaAs/AlGaAs core–shell NWs with thin (sub-40 nm) GaAs NW core channel are employed, where the electrical and thermoelectric transport is characterized on the same exact 1D-channel. 1D-sub-band transport at low temperature is verified by a discrete stepwise increase in the conductance, which coincided with strong oscillations in the corresponding Seebeck voltage that decay with increasing sub-band number. Peak Seebeck coefficients as high as ≈65–85 µV K−1 are observed for the lowest sub-bands, resulting in equivalent thermopower of S2σ ≈ 60 µW m−1 K−2 and S2G ≈ 0.06 pW K−2 within a single sub-band. Remarkably, these core–shell NW heterostructures also exhibit thermal conductivities as low as ≈3 W m−1 K−1, about one order of magnitude lower than state-of-the-art unpassivated GaAs NWs.