Substantial local variation of Seebeck coefficient in gold nanowires
arXiv:1707.04510 · doi:10.1039/C7NR02678A
Abstract
Nanoscale structuring holds promise to improve thermoelectric properties of materials for energy conversion and photodetection. We report a study of the spatial distribution of the photothermoelectric voltage in thin-film nanowire devices fabricated from single metal. A focused laser beam is used to locally heat the metal nanostructure via a combination of direct absorption and excitation of a plasmon resonance in Au devices. As seen previously, in nanowires shorter than the spot size of the laser, we observe a thermoelectric voltage distribution that is consistent with the local Seebeck coefficient being spatially dependent on the width of the nanostructure. In longer structures, we observe extreme variability of the net thermoelectric voltage as the laser spot is scanned along the length of the nanowire. The sign and magnitude of the thermoelectric voltage is sensitive to the structural defects, metal grain structure, and surface passivation of the nanowire. This finding opens the possibility of improved local control of the thermoelectric properties at the nanoscale.
17 pages, 4 figures, + 15 pages and 12 figures of supplementary material
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Cited by in corpus (5)
- Signature of magnon Nernst effect in an antiferromagnetic insulator
- Thermoelectric response from grain boundaries and lattice distortions in crystalline gold devices
- Scanning probe-induced thermoelectrics in a quantum point contact
- The heat equation for nanoconstrictions in 2D materials with Joule self-heating
- Progress of microscopic thermoelectric effects studied by micro-and nano-thermometric techniques