High efficiency and non-Richardson thermionics in three dimensional Dirac materials

Huang, Sunchao; Sanderson, Matthew R.; Zhang, Yan; Zhang, Chao

doi:10.1063/1.5006277

Cited by 18 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…Now, we discuss the heat transfer in the devices with thermionic cooling. Unlike thermal radiation and thermal conduction, thermionic cooling can transport net heat from a cold object to a hot object 17 . This means the internal temperature can be lower than the environmental temperature.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A 3D Dirac semimetal phase with a linear energy-momentum dispersion has been experimentally observed in Cd 3 As 2 by means of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy 9 . The material has attracted considerable attention [10][11][12][13] and has been found to have many astounding properties such as the extraordinarily high mobility of electrons (10,000 cm 2 /V s at room temperature) 14 , tunable mid-infrared optical switching 15 , low thermal conductivity 16 and high efficiency and non-Richardson thermionics 17,18 . By using the linear energy-momentum dispersion, the thermionic emission of Dirac materials is determined to be 17…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thermionic enhanced heat transfer in electronic devices based on 3D Dirac materials

Huang

Lewis

Zhang

2019

Journal of Applied Physics

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We calculate the heat transfer from electronic devices based on three-dimensional Dirac materials without and with thermionic cooling. Without thermionic cooling, the internal temperature of the devices is at best equal to and usually higher than the temperature of the surrounding environment. However, when thermionic cooling is employed to transport heat, the internal temperature can be considerably lower than the environmental temperature. In the proposed thermionic cooling process, the energy efficiency can be as high as 75% of the Carnot efficiency.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermionic enhanced heat transfer in electronic devices based on 3D Dirac materials

Huang

Lewis

Zhang

2019

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…The unconventional band structures about its Dirac point have bought about many interesting applications in electronics [18][19][20], spintronics [21], photonics [22,23], nonlinear optics [24][25][26] and topological electronics (topotronics) [27]. Apart from these applications, the physics of electron emission from Dirac materials like carbon-based nanomaterials [28][29][30] or graphene [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] have also received attentions over the past two decades.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal-field electron emission from three-dimensional Dirac and Weyl semimetals

Chan

Ang

2021

Phys. Rev. B

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A model is constructed to describe the thermal-field emission of electrons from a three-dimensional (3D) topological semimetal hosting Dirac/Weyl node(s). The traditional thermal-field electron emission model is generalised to accommodate the 3D non-parabolic energy band structures in the topological Dirac/Weyl semimetals, such as cadmium arsenide (Cd 3 As 2 ), sodium bismuthide (Na 3 Bi), tantalum arsenide (TaAs) and tantalum phosphide (TaP). Due to the unique Dirac cone band structure, an unusual dual-peak feature is observed in the total energy distribution (TED) spectrum. This non-trivial dual-peak feature, absent from traditional materials, plays a critical role in manipulating the TED spectrum and the magnitude of the emission current. At zero temperature limit, a new scaling law for pure field emission is derived and it is different from the well-known Fowler-Nordheim (FN) law. This model expands the recent understandings of electron emission studied for the Dirac 2D materials into the 3D regime, and thus offers a theoretical foundation for the exploration in using topological semimetals as novel electrodes.

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“…Generally, the RD law is only applicable to metallic materials for which transport electrons possess a parabolic energy dispersion relation [9]. For three-dimensional Dirac semimetals (3D DSs) with linear energy dispersion [10][11][12][13][14], electrons mimic massless quasiparticles, hence the mass-dependent coefficient A is questionable, and the corresponding modification for the RD law is required through a quantum model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermionic energy conversion based on 3D Dirac semimetals

Zhang¹,

Peng²,

Su³

et al. 2018

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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First, we investigate theoretically the thermionic emission from three-dimensional Dirac semimetals (3D DSs), then we explore their practical application as the cathode of a thermionic energy generator (TIEG). Based on the linear energy dispersion around Dirac points, we derive the generalized analytical formula of the thermionic emission from 3D DSs through the Dirac Hamilton, which is significantly different from the Richardson–Dushman (RD) law for metallic materials. The reason for this originates from the fact that electrons behave like massless fermions and follow ultrarelativistic quasiparticle dynamics in 3D DSs, deviating from the nonrelativistic electrons with a parabolic energy dispersion in conventional metal materials. We develop a theoretical model of the solid-state thermionic energy generator using 3D DSs as the cathode and obtain its optimal working regions at different temperatures. For a 3D DS-based cathode at 1400 K, the maximum efficiency of the proposed TIEG can reach 50.0%, where the correspondingly optimal work functions of the cathode and anode are 2.05 eV and 0.612 eV, respectively. The results presented in this work demonstrate that 3D DSs are superior to metallic materials and graphene in thermionic application, and will contribute to the choice of electrode materials, optimal designs, and control operative conditions of practical TIEGs.

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High efficiency and non-Richardson thermionics in three dimensional Dirac materials

Cited by 18 publications

References 33 publications

Thermionic enhanced heat transfer in electronic devices based on 3D Dirac materials

Thermionic enhanced heat transfer in electronic devices based on 3D Dirac materials

Thermal-field electron emission from three-dimensional Dirac and Weyl semimetals

Thermionic energy conversion based on 3D Dirac semimetals

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