Advanced Nanoscale Thin Film & Bulk Materials Towards Thermoelectric Power Conversion Efficiencies of 30

摘要

Among a broad range of scientific and technological discoveries resulting directly from the NMP program, a number of these stand out as particularly compelling and ground-breaking. These are highlighted, below. 1. The NMP project achieved >26% efficient, 3-stage cascade with advanced materials from NMP, in addition to optimization of thermoelectric leg area-to- length ratios. Results were validated and shown to be reproducible. 2. A major breakthrough in TE solid-state heat-to-electric conversion. 3. Expected to have a significant impact on DoD portable power, energy efficiency leading to less demand on fuel supply logistics, electric ships, quiet submarines, electric aircrafts, etc.; equally important for non-DoD applications in automotives to industrial platforms. 4. delta-doped n-type thin-film Bi2Te3-xSex superlattices were shown to exhibit a high-ZT >2 at 300K 5. Device development leveraged low- resistivity contacts and thicker films from DARPA Active Cooling Module program 6. Improved Power Factor and ZT in n-type GaSb/InAs SL mid-temp thin-films 7. Large ZT in p-type PbTe/GeTe SL mid-temperature films 8. ZT> 1.7 was established in p-type and n-type nano-Bi2Te3 bulk; breakthrough TEM results and materials characterization 9. Highest ZT ever reported in p-type Bi2Te3 manuscript has been accepted for publication in Nature Nanotechnology.