Seebeck coefficient in multiphase thin films

Nouredine Oueldna (1, 2) , Alain Portavoce (1) , Maxime Bertoglio (1) , Marion Descoins (1) , Abdelkhalek Kammouni (2) , Khalid Hoummada (1)

1 IM2NP - Institut des Matériaux, de Microélectronique et des Nanosciences de Provence
2 LASMAR - Faculté des Sciences

Mg-Ag-Sb thin films were deposited by magnetron sputtering using a commercial Mg 1/3 Ag 1/3 Sb 1/3 target. All the films contain principally the two phases Ag 3 Sb and alpha-MgAgSb in same proportions but exhibit different microstructures. The films have the same Seebeck coefficient despite the difference of interface density and structure. Theoretical calculations show that the film effective Seebeck coefficient S is depending only on the volume of each phase present in the film and their Seebeck coefficients. The multiple interfaces between the different phases have no effect on S .

Mots clés: Thermoelectricity; Seebeck coefficient; Interface; Thin film; MgAgSb

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Nouredine Oueldna, Alain Portavoce, Maxime Bertoglio, Marion Descoins, Abdelkhalek Kammouni, et al.. Seebeck coefficient in multiphase thin films. Materials Letters, 2020. ⟨hal-03046413⟩