BASIC STUDIES ON THERMOELECTRIC MATERIALS.

Abstract

There are three topics currently being pursued on this contract. Two of them are studies intended to provide a better understanding of the particular properties in a solid which make it a good thermoelectric material. The third is a study of the relation between the figure of merit for a material in a Nernst-Ettinghausen type device and the fundamental properties of the material such as carrier mobilities, type of scattering, energy gap, and lattice thermal conductivity. The thermoelectric figure of merit of a material is related to the effective mass and mobility of the charge carriers, the lattice thermal conductivity of the material, and the band structure of the material. In general it is expected that many-valley band structures will give a higher figure of merit than single-valley structures. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1964
Accession Number
AD0445831

Entities

Organizations

  • Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Band Structures
  • Carrier Mobility
  • Charge Carriers
  • Conductivity
  • Energy Bands
  • Energy Gaps
  • Figure Of Merit
  • Materials
  • Mobility
  • Thermal Conductivity

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.
  • Systems Analysis and Design