Thermal and Thermoelectric Transport in Thin Films and Nanostructures

Interest in increasing efficiency of energy generation continues to spur the development of new thermoelectric materials. Though bulk materials hold the most promise for large-scale energy generation, many groups continue to explore increasing the thermoelectric figure-of-merit by taking advantage of techniques for creating nanostructured materials such as multilayered thin films and nanowires. These systems could prove to have high figures-of-merit and be important for integrating energy harvesting and/or cooling with micro- or nanoscale devices ``on chip.'' Though many promising systems have been identified, measuring their fundamental thermal transport often remains a major challenge. In this talk, we briefly describe our recent advances in measuring in-plane thermal transport, thermopower and electrical conductivity on thin-films or nanolithographically patterned systems. Our technique allows great flexibility for studying the thermoelectric properties of a wide range of materials, from amorphous semiconductors to semi-metallic nanowires.