Photosensitive Schottky Barrier Diode Based on Cu/p-SnSe Thin Film Fabricated by Thermal Evaporation

Tin Selenide (SnSe), a group IV-VI compound semiconductor material is used to fabricate various solid state devices such as memory switching devices, P-N junction diodes, Schottky barrier diodes, etc. In...

Oxidation-induced thermopower inversion in nanocrystalline SnSe thin film

Given the growing demand for environmentally friendly energy sources, thermoelectric energy conversion has attracted increased interest as a promising CO2-free technology. SnSe single crystals have attracted attention as a next generation thermoelectric material due to outstanding thermoelectric properties arising from ultralow thermal conductivity. For practical applications, on the other hand, polycrystalline SnSe should be also focused because the production cost and the flexibility for applications are important factors, which requires the systematic investigation of the stability of thermoelectric performance under a pseudo operating environment. Here, we report that the physical properties of SnSe crystals with nano to submicron scale are drastically modified by atmospheric annealing. We measured the Seebeck effect while changing the annealing time and found that the large positive thermopower, + 757 μV K−1, was completely suppressed by annealing for only a few minutes and was eventually inverted to be the large negative value, − 427 μV K−1. This result would further accelerate intensive studies on SnSe nanostructures, especially focusing on the realistic device structures and sealing technologies for energy harvesting applications.

Effect of substrate temperature on structural and thermoelectric properties of RF magnetron sputtered SnSe thin film

SnSe is a potential thermoelectric material, but there are few reports about the thermoelectric properties of the film. In this work, SnSe thin films were deposited on glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering from SnSe alloy target. The effect of substrate temperature on the structural and thermoelectric properties was investigated. It was found that the columnar grains and the surface roughness of the films increase with increasing the substrate temperature. The film deposited at 558 K exhibited a high crystalline quality and stoichiometric composition, which has a maximum power factor of 1.4[Formula: see text]uWcm[Formula: see text]K[Formula: see text] at 575[Formula: see text]K. The results of this work demonstrate the importance of high substrate temperature to obtain high thermoelectric performance SnSe films.

Enhanced thermoelectric properties of SnSe thin films grown by single-target magnetron sputtering

SnSe thin films were successfully grown using single-target magnetron sputtering. The SnSe thin film annealed at 700 K exhibits superior thermoelectric performance compared with previously reported SnSe films and polycrystalline SnSe bulk material.