A Nanostructuring Method to Decouple Electrical and Thermal Transport through the Formation of Electrically Triggered Conductive Nanofilaments

José Ramón Durán Retamal; Chen-Fang Kang; Der-Hsien Lien; Wei-Cheng Kuo; Zhen-Yu Juang; Meng-Lin Tsai; Chih-Hsiang Ho; Jenh-Yih Juang; Vincent K S Hsiao; Ying-Hao Chu; Lain-Jong Li; Yue Wu; Jr-Hau He

doi:10.1002/adma.201705385

A Nanostructuring Method to Decouple Electrical and Thermal Transport through the Formation of Electrically Triggered Conductive Nanofilaments

Adv Mater. 2018 Jul;30(28):e1705385. doi: 10.1002/adma.201705385. Epub 2018 May 28.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Electrophysics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan, Republic of China.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan, Republic of China.
⁴ Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE) Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA.
⁶ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.

PMID: 29806141
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201705385

Abstract

Transforming thermal energy into electric energy and vice versa needs the decoupling of electrical transport from thermal transport. An innovative strategy is proposed by forming/disrupting electrically triggered conductive nanofilaments within semiconducting thin films to switch thermoelectric properties between two states without further material modification and manufacturing processes. It can also controllably adjust the degree of decoupling, providing a potential resolution and performance adjustability for heat/coldness control or power consumption reduction on demand.

Keywords: conductive nanofilaments; figure of merit ZT; resistive switching; thermoelectrics.