Graphene has a great potential to replace silicon in prospective semiconductor industries due to its outstanding electronic and transport properties; nonetheless, its lack of energy band gap is a substantial limitation for practical applications. Therefore, precise electronic band gap tuning in graphene is a critical challenge to facilitate its developments in electronic, photonic, and
In this research, we report the enhanced thermoelectric power factor in topologically insulating thin films of Bi0.64Sb1.36Te3 with a thickness of 6–200 nm. Measurements of scanning tunneling spectroscopy and electronic transport show that the Fermi level lies close to the valence band edge, and that the topological surface state (TSS) is electron dominated. We find that the Seebeck coefficient of the 6 nm and 15 nm thick films is dominated by the valence band, while the TSS chiefly contributes to the electrical conductivity. In contrast, the electronic transport of the reference 200 nm thick film behaves similar to bulk thermoelectric materials with low carrier concentration, implying the effect of the TSS on the electronic transport is merely prominent in the thin region. The conductivity of the 6 nm and 15 nm thick film is obviously higher than that in the 200 nm thick film owing to the highly mobile TSS conduction channel. As a consequence of the enhanced electrical conductivity and the suppressed bipolar effect in transport properties for the 6 nm thick film, an impressive power factor of about 2.0 mW m−1 K−2 is achieved at room temperature for this film. Further investigations of the electronic transport properties of TSS and interactions between TSS and the bulk band might result in a further improved thermoelectric power factor in topologically insulating Bi0.64Sb1.36Te3 thin films.
We quantify the local Seebeck coefficient with scanning thermoelectric microscopy, using a direct approach to convert temperature gradient-induced voltages (V) to Seebeck coefficients (S). We use a quasi-3D conversion matrix that considers both the sample geometry and the temperature profile. For a GaAs p-n junction, the resulting S-profile is consistent with that computed using the free carrier concentration profile. This combined computational-experimental approach is expected to enable nanoscale measurements of S across a wide variety of heterostructure interfaces.
We examine the formation and properties of InGaN quantum dots (QDs) on free-standing GaN and GaN/sapphire templates, with and without buried InGaN/GaN QD superlattices (SLs). We use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and scanning tunneling spectroscopy to image the QDs and measure their electronic states. As the number of layers preceding the QDs increases (i.e., increasing substrate complexity), the total QD density increases. For free-standing GaN, STM reveals a mono-modal QD-size-distribution, consistent with a limited density of substrate threading dislocations serving as heterogeneous nucleation sites. For GaN/sapphire templates, STM reveals a bimodal QD-size-distribution, presumably due to the nucleation of additional ultra-small InN-rich QDs near threading dislocations. For multi-period QD SLs on GaN/sapphire templates, an ultra-high density of QDs, with a mono-modal size distribution is apparent, suggesting that QD nucleation is enhanced by preferential nucleation at strain energy minima directly above buried QDs. We discuss the relative influences of strain fields associated with threading dislocations and buried QD SLs on the formation of InGaN QDs and their effective bandgaps.
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