How bilayer excitons can greatly enhance thermoelectric efficiency

Abstract

Currently, one of the major nanotechnological challenges is to design thermoelectric devices that have a high figure of merit. To that end, we propose to use bilayer excitons. Bilayer exciton systems are shown to have an improved thermopower and an enhanced electric counterflow and thermal conductivity, with respect to regular semiconductor-based thermoelectrics. Here we present a roadmap towards experimental realization of a bilayer exciton thermocouple. A bilayer exciton heterostructures of $p$- and $n$-doped Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ can have a figure of merit $zT\sim 60$. Another material suggestion is to make a bilayer out of electron-doped SrTiO${}_3$ and hole-doped Ca${}_3$Co${}_4$O${}_9$.

7 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Phonon-glass electron-crystal thermoelectric clathrates: Experiments and theory
• Room-Temperature Superfluidity in Graphene Bilayers
• Exciton condensation and charge fractionalization in a topological insulator film
• Excitonic condensation of massless fermions in graphene bilayers
• Electron screening and excitonic condensation in double-layer graphene systems
• Exciton formation in graphene bilayer
• Electron-Hole Liquids in Transition Metal Oxide Heterostructures
• The Electronic States of Two Oppositely doped Mott Insulators Bilayers

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Coulomb drag and counterflow Seebeck coefficient in bilayer-graphene double layers
• Optical and thermal characterization of a group-III nitride semiconductor membrane by microphotoluminescence spectroscopy and Raman thermometry
• Effects of Disorder on the Transport of Collective Modes in an Excitonic Condensate
• Maximization of the thermoelectric cooling of graded Peltier by analytical heat equation resolution
• High thermoelectric performance in excitonic bilayer graphene
• True exciton condensate of one-dimensional electrons through interwire tunneling
• Excitonic gap generation in thin-film topological insulators
• Excitonic gap formation in neutral bilayer structures