Thermoelectricity - Physical Origin of The Thermoelectric Coefficients

Physical Origin of The Thermoelectric Coefficients

A material's temperature, crystal structure, and impurities influence the value of the thermoelectric coefficients. The Seebeck effect can be attributed to two things: charge-carrier diffusion and phonon drag. Typically metals have small Seebeck coefficients because of partially filled bands, with a conductivity that is relatively insensitive to small changes in energy. In contrast, semiconductors can be doped with impurities that donate excess electrons or electron holes, allowing the value of S to be varied over a large range (both negative and positive). The sign of the Seebeck coefficients can be used to determine whether the electrons or the holes dominate electric transport in a semiconductor or semimetal.

Read more about this topic:  Thermoelectricity

Famous quotes containing the words physical and/or origin:

    To many women marriage is only this. It is merely a physical change impinging on their ordinary nature, leaving their mentality untouched, their self-possession intact. They are not burnt by even the red fire of physical passion—far less by the white fire of love.
    Mary Webb (1881–1927)

    The essence of morality is a questioning about morality; and the decisive move of human life is to use ceaselessly all light to look for the origin of the opposition between good and evil.
    Georges Bataille (1897–1962)