Impact of the Topological Surface State on the Thermoelectric Transport in Sb${}_2$Te${}_3$ Thin Films

Abstract

Ab initio electronic structure calculations based on density functional theory and tight-binding methods for the thermoelectric properties of p-type Sb${}_2$Te${}_3$ films are presented. The thickness-dependent electrical conductivity and the ther- mopower are computed in the diffusive limit of transport based on the Boltzmann equation. Contributions of the bulk and the surface to the transport coefficients are separated which enables to identify a clear impact of the topological surface state on the thermoelectric properties. By tuning the charge carrier concentration, a crossover between a surface-state-dominant and a Fuchs-Sondheimer transport regime is achieved. The calculations are corroborated by thermoelectric transport measurements on Sb${}_2$Te${}_3$ films grown by atomic layer deposition.

with supplemental material; to be published in ACS Nano

References in corpus (4)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Topological Surface States Protected From Backscattering by Chiral Spin Texture
• Thermoelectric performance of classical topological insulator nanowires
• Signature of the topological surface state in the thermoelectric properties of Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Colloquium: Topological Band Theory
• Nanowires: A route to efficient thermoelectric devices
• Thermoelectric Effects and Topological Insulators
• Thermoelectric properties of 3D topological insulator: Direct observation of topological surface and its gap opened states
• Prediction of the High Thermoelectric Performance of Pnictogen Dichalcogenide Layered Compounds with Quasi-One-Dimensional Gapped Dirac-like Band Dispersion
• Lifetime and surface-to-bulk scattering off vacancies of the topological surface state in the three-dimensional strong topological insulators Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3