| AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Thin Film | Monday Sessions |
| Session TF+EM-MoA |
| Session: | ALD for Energy Conversion and Storage |
| Presenter: | Giovanna Scarel, James Madison University |
| Authors: | G. Scarel, James Madison University H.S. Mann, James Madison University B.N. Lang, James Madison University V.D. Wheeler, Naval Research Laboratory B.C. Utter, Bucknell University |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Infrared power generation is emerging as a useful method to harvest infrared (IR) light and transform it into usable energy available day and night. So far, this method is implemented using bulk power generator (PG) devices, neglecting any effort to improve the materials employed as their active element. Here we initiate this effort by fabricating thin thermoelectric TiO2/TiN multilayer films via atomic layer deposition (ALD) and focusing on the exploration of the effects of film resistance on the voltage produced by nano-PG devices with these films as their active elements. By changing the number and thickness of the TiO2/TiN layers, we control the sheet resistance (W/) over three orders of magnitude. We observe that the voltage produced by nano-PG devices linearly increases with the thin multilayer films resistance, especially in the k-W/ range. On the contrary, we measure an almost constant voltage jump versus film resistance when we excite the nano-PG device through Joule heating. The observed behavior suggests that the nano-PG device works effectively when mimicking the mechanism of a capacitor, similar to the case of a bulk device. Our studies pave the way to improving the properties of nano-PG devices by improving the properties of the active materials in the form of thin films fabricated via ALD.