TY - CONF
KW - Invited
KW - SiGe
KW - SiGe/GaP
AU - Cronin Vining
AU - Jean-Pierre Fleurial
AB - Over the last decade an impressive variety of innovative techniques has been applied to prepare silicon-germanium alloys with improved thermoelectric figure of merit values.  Today, technologically important improvements appear nearly ready for device-level testing.  Some approaches have favored the reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity through smaller grain size or addition of inert particulates to enhance phonon scattering.  Other approaches sought to improve the electrical properties of the materials by carrier concentration and mobility enhancement.  Although most of the experimental work has been conducted on sintered/hot-pressed materials, more sophisticated and complex techniques have been developed to strive for more control over microstructure and composition.  The difficulty of understanding the physical mechanisms involved and of predicting the magnitude of possible improvements has led to the development of theoretical tools based on solid-state physics and physical chemistry.  This paper attempts to provide an overview of the experimental and theoretical efforts to improve the thermoelectric properties of silicon-germanium with a particular emphasis on some of the less well publicized results.  Future prospects and open questions are also briefly discussed.
BT - A Critical Review of Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion 1984-1993
DA - 1994///
LA - eng
N2 - Over the last decade an impressive variety of innovative techniques has been applied to prepare silicon-germanium alloys with improved thermoelectric figure of merit values.  Today, technologically important improvements appear nearly ready for device-level testing.  Some approaches have favored the reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity through smaller grain size or addition of inert particulates to enhance phonon scattering.  Other approaches sought to improve the electrical properties of the materials by carrier concentration and mobility enhancement.  Although most of the experimental work has been conducted on sintered/hot-pressed materials, more sophisticated and complex techniques have been developed to strive for more control over microstructure and composition.  The difficulty of understanding the physical mechanisms involved and of predicting the magnitude of possible improvements has led to the development of theoretical tools based on solid-state physics and physical chemistry.  This paper attempts to provide an overview of the experimental and theoretical efforts to improve the thermoelectric properties of silicon-germanium with a particular emphasis on some of the less well publicized results.  Future prospects and open questions are also briefly discussed.
PB - American Institute of Physics
PY - 1994
SP - 87
EP - 120
EP - 
T2 - A Critical Review of Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion 1984-1993
TI - Silicon-Germainium: An Overview of Recent Developments
UR - http://cvining.com/system/files/articles/vining/Vining-SNPP-1993.pdf
ER -