Incoherent scattering can favorably influence energy filtering in nanostructured thermoelectrics

Abstract Investigating in detail the physics of energy filtering through a single planar energy barrier in nanostructured thermoelectric generators, we reinforce the non-trivial result that the anticipated enhancement in generated power at a given efficiency via energy filtering is a characteristic...

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Autores principales:	Aniket Singha, Bhaskaran Muralidharan
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e19a4fa138c145659962db5d080ee938
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e19a4fa138c145659962db5d080ee9382021-12-02T16:06:42ZIncoherent scattering can favorably influence energy filtering in nanostructured thermoelectrics10.1038/s41598-017-07935-w2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/e19a4fa138c145659962db5d080ee9382017-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07935-whttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Investigating in detail the physics of energy filtering through a single planar energy barrier in nanostructured thermoelectric generators, we reinforce the non-trivial result that the anticipated enhancement in generated power at a given efficiency via energy filtering is a characteristic of systems dominated by incoherent scattering and is absent in ballistic devices. In such cases, assuming an energy dependent relaxation time τ(E) = kE r , we show that there exists a minimum value r min beyond which generation can be enhanced by embedding nanobarriers. For bulk generators with embedded nanobarriers, we delve into the details of inter sub-band scattering and show that it has finite contribution to the enhancement in generation. We subsequently discuss the realistic aspects, such as the effect of smooth transmission cut-off and show that for r > r min , the optimized energy barrier is just sufficiently wide enough to scatter off low energy electrons, a very wide barrier being detrimental to the performance. Analysis of the obtained results should provide general design guidelines for enhancement in thermoelectric generation via energy filtering. Our non-equilibrium approach is typically valid in the absence of local quasi-equilibrium and hence sets the stage for future advancements in thermoelectric device analysis, for example, Peltier cooling near a barrier interface.Aniket SinghaBhaskaran MuralidharanNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Aniket Singha Bhaskaran Muralidharan Incoherent scattering can favorably influence energy filtering in nanostructured thermoelectrics
description	Abstract Investigating in detail the physics of energy filtering through a single planar energy barrier in nanostructured thermoelectric generators, we reinforce the non-trivial result that the anticipated enhancement in generated power at a given efficiency via energy filtering is a characteristic of systems dominated by incoherent scattering and is absent in ballistic devices. In such cases, assuming an energy dependent relaxation time τ(E) = kE r , we show that there exists a minimum value r min beyond which generation can be enhanced by embedding nanobarriers. For bulk generators with embedded nanobarriers, we delve into the details of inter sub-band scattering and show that it has finite contribution to the enhancement in generation. We subsequently discuss the realistic aspects, such as the effect of smooth transmission cut-off and show that for r > r min , the optimized energy barrier is just sufficiently wide enough to scatter off low energy electrons, a very wide barrier being detrimental to the performance. Analysis of the obtained results should provide general design guidelines for enhancement in thermoelectric generation via energy filtering. Our non-equilibrium approach is typically valid in the absence of local quasi-equilibrium and hence sets the stage for future advancements in thermoelectric device analysis, for example, Peltier cooling near a barrier interface.
format	article
author	Aniket Singha Bhaskaran Muralidharan
author_facet	Aniket Singha Bhaskaran Muralidharan
author_sort	Aniket Singha
title	Incoherent scattering can favorably influence energy filtering in nanostructured thermoelectrics
title_short	Incoherent scattering can favorably influence energy filtering in nanostructured thermoelectrics
title_full	Incoherent scattering can favorably influence energy filtering in nanostructured thermoelectrics
title_fullStr	Incoherent scattering can favorably influence energy filtering in nanostructured thermoelectrics
title_full_unstemmed	Incoherent scattering can favorably influence energy filtering in nanostructured thermoelectrics
title_sort	incoherent scattering can favorably influence energy filtering in nanostructured thermoelectrics
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/e19a4fa138c145659962db5d080ee938
work_keys_str_mv	AT aniketsingha incoherentscatteringcanfavorablyinfluenceenergyfilteringinnanostructuredthermoelectrics AT bhaskaranmuralidharan incoherentscatteringcanfavorablyinfluenceenergyfilteringinnanostructuredthermoelectrics
_version_	1718384937034317824

Incoherent scattering can favorably influence energy filtering in nanostructured thermoelectrics

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