Experimental and Theoretical Expansion of the Phenomenology of Thermoelectricity

Abstract

Investigations of thermoelectric effects in macro-objects obtained by traditional thermoelectric technology have already led several decades ago to the understanding that the thermoelectric figure of merit (the Joffe parameter) can not exceed a certain limit. Therefore, the research cycle, the most significant results of which are presented in this paper, was focused on the study of objects developed using microelectronics technology. As was confirmed in the first part of this work, the practical limit of the thermoelectric figure of merit is macroscopic, and is not the maximum of the efficiency of thermoelectric conversion on micro-and nano-objects on the basis of local thermo-EMFs found in them. To determine the optimum parameters of thermoelectric devices on the basis of local effects, their experimental study was carried out. Also, to take into account local effects in the first order, and not in the form of minor corrections, it was required, as was shown in the previous article, to expand their linear phenomenology, the first part of which is presented in this article.