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The Evolution of Nanothermoelectricity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2011

Mildred Dresselhaus
Mildred Dresselhaus*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, U.S.A.

Abstract

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A personal review is presented. We review the renaissance in thermoelectric materials research that started in 1993 with the introduction of the nanostructure concept as a potential method to both increase the power factor and decrease the thermal conductivity and to even do both at the same time. The earliest work was limited to model systems for the demonstration of proof of principle. More recently the focus has evolved into demonstration of embedding the phenomena into bulk samples based on composites and superlattices. We here review this evolution of the nanothermoelectricity field. The resulting current activity is attracting many new researchers, industrial interest and the emergence of new ideas. We now look to the further development of these new ideas, and to the introduction of more new ideas and new approaches, as the field is now approaching the stage of commercial relevance.

Keywords

alloynanostructurethermoelectricity

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