• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.30-34
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• 2009

The effect of pressure on the thermal conductivity in two-phase composite system was studied. Thermally conductive polypropylene (PP)/silicon carbide (SiC) composites were prepared by applying various pressures from 0 to 20 MPa. The thermal conductivity of the composite was 1.86 W/mK at 20 MPa, increased by 40% compared to the value of at 0 MPa. It was 9 times higher than that of unfilled polypropylene. It implies the pressure induces the easy path for phonon transport. Also, the experimental values were compared with Maxwell's prediction and Agari's prediction. Agari's prediction gave a better agreement compared to that of Maxwell's prediction due to the consideration of interactions between filler-filler and filler-polymer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2000.05a
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• pp.451-454
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• 2000

The impact ionization(I.I.) is necessary to analyze carrier transport properties under the influence of high electric field. The full band I-k relation and Fermi's golden rule are used for the calculation of impact ionization rate. We have investigated the temperature- and field-dependent impact ionization coefficient for silicon using full band Monte Carlo simulation. The impact ionization coefficients calculated by our impact ionization model are agreed with experimental data at look. We know that impact ionization coefficients and electron energies are decreasing along increasing temperature due to increase of phonon scattering, especially by emission. The logarithm of impact ionization coefficients are fitted to linear function for temperature and field. The residuals of linear function are within the error bound of 5%. We know logarithmic impact ionization coefficients are linearly dependent on temperature and field.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2000.05a
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• pp.460-464
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• 2000

As device dimensions are lastly scaled down, impact ionization(I.I.) events are very important to analyze hot carrier transport in high energy region, and the exact model of impact ionization is demanded on device simulation. We calculate full band model by empirical pseudopotential method and the impact ionization rate is derived from modified Keldysh formula. We calculate impact ionization coefficients by full band Monte Carlo simulator to investigate temperature-and field-dependent characteristics of impact ionization for GaAs. Resultly impact ionization coefficients are In good agreement with experimental values at 300k. We know energy is increasing along increasing the field. while energy is decreasing along increasing the temperature since the phonon scattering rates for omission mode are very high at high temperature. The logarithmic fitting function of impact ionization coefficients is described as a second orders function for temperature and field. The residuals of the logarithmic fitting function are mostly within 5%. We know, therefore, logarithm of impact ionization coefficients has quadratic dependence on temperature and field, and we can save time of calculating the temperature- and field-dependent impact ionization coefficients.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2010

This paper shortly reviews our recent work on filled skutterudites, which are considered to be one of the most promising thermoelectric (TE) materials due to their excellent power factors and relatively low thermal conductivities. The filled skutterudite system also provides a platform for studying void filling physics/chemistry in compounds with intrinsic lattice voids. By using ab initio calculations and thermodynamic analysis, our group has made progresses in understanding the filling fraction limit (FFL) for single fillers in $CoSb_3$, and ultra-high FFLs in a few alkali-metal-filled $CoSb_3$ have been predicted and then been confirmed experimentally. FFLs in multiple-element-filled $CoSb_3$ are also investigated and anonymous filling behavior is found in a few specific systems. The calculated and measured FFLs, in both single and multiple-filled $CoSb_3$ systems, show good accordance so far. The thermal transport properties can be understood qualitatively by a phonon resonance scattering model, and it seems that a scaling rule may exist between the lattice thermal resistivity and the resonance frequency of filler atoms in filled system. Even though a few things become clear now, there are still many unsolved issues that call for further work.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.47.1-47.1
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• 2011

We report on a direct measurement of two-dimensional chemical and electrical distribution on the surface of photovoltaic Cu(In,Ga)$Se_2$ thin-films using a nano-scale spectroscopic and electrical characterization, respectively. The Raman measurement reveals non-uniformed surface phonon vibration which comes from different compositional distribution and defects in the nature of polycrystalline thin-films. On the other hand, potential analysis by scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy shows a higher surface potential or a small work function on grain boundaries of the thin-films than on the grain surfaces. This demonstrates the grain boundary is positively charged and local built-in potential exist on grain boundary, which improve electron-hole separation on grain boundary. Local electrical transport measurements with scanning probe microscopy on the thin-films indicates that as external bias is increases, local current is started to flow from grain boundary and saturated over 0.3 V external bias. This accounts for carrier behavior in the vicinity of grain boundary with regard to defect states. We suggest that electron-hole separation at the grain boundary as well as chemical and electrical distribution of polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)$Se_2$ thin-films.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.263-269
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• 2016

Graphene oxide (GO) powder processed by Hummer's method is mixed with p-type $Bi_2Te_3$ based thermoelectric materials by a high-energy ball milling process. The synthesized GO-dispersed p-type $Bi_2Te_3$ composite powder has a composition of $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ (BSbT), and the powder is consolidated into composites with different contents of GO powder by using the spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. It is found that the addition of GO powder significantly decreases the thermal conductivity of the pure BSbT material through active phonon scattering at the newly formed interfaces. In addition, the electrical properties of the GO/BSbT composites are degraded by the addition of GO powder except in the case of the 0.1 wt% GO/BSbT composite. It is found that defects on the surface of GO powder hinder the electrical transport properties. As a result, the maximum thermoelectric performance (ZT value of 0.91) is achieved from the 0.1% GO/BSbT composite at 398 K. These results indicate that introducing GO powder into thermoelectric materials is a promising method to achieve enhanced thermoelectric performance due to the reduction in thermal conductivity.

• Proceedings of the Korea Crystallographic Association Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.8-8
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• 2003

Electron-phonon interaction plays a significant role in forming of colossal magnetoresistance effect (CMR). Polaron formation was observed by neutron diffraction and by extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis. Local probe as given by the EXAFS is a useful method to study the polaronic charge and its dependence on temperature and ions size. Here we present the EXAFS study of polaronic charge in La/sub 0.7/Ca/sub 0.3-X/Ba/sub X/MnO₃ compositions. The single phase La/sub 0.7/Ca/sub 0.3-X/Ba/sub X/MnO₃ manganites (x=0; 0.03; 0.06, ..., 0.3) were prepared by ceramic technology [1]. The Curie temperature was determined by extrapolation of the temperature dependence of the magnetization (down to zero magnetization). EXAFS experiments were carried out at the 7C EC beam line of the Pohang Light Source (PLS) in Korea. The atomic pair distribution functions (PDF) were obtained by re-regularization method [2] from filtered spectra. The PDF for the x=0.3 sample showed a single peak function and for x=0.0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12 compositions were asymmetric in agreement with a small Jahn-Teller elongation of two (short and long) bonds of the MnO/sub 6/ octahedron. Dispersion, σ/sub Min-O//sup 2/, and asymmetry, σ/sub Min-O//sup 3/, of the Mn-O bond distances varied significantly with x and showed a maximums at x=0.09. The maximum of σ/sub Min-O//sup 2/ is caused by increase of dynamic rms displacements of the Mn-O distances near the T/sub C/. The observed x dependence of σ/sub Min-O//sup 3/ reflects the reduction of charge carriers mobility at approaching to T/sub C/ from low as well as high temperatures.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.132-138
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• 2022

Zintl phase Mg₃Sb₂ is a promising thermoelectric material in medium to high temperature range due to its low band gap energy and characteristic electron-crystal phonon-glass behavior. P-type Mg₃Sb₂ has conventionally exhibited lower thermoelectric properties compared to its n-type counterparts, which have poor electrical conductivity. To address these problems, a small amount of Sn doping was considered in this alloy system. P-type Mg₃Sb₂ was synthesized by controlled melting, pulverizing, and subsequent vacuum hot pressing (VHP) method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate phases and microstructure development during the process. Single phase Mg₃Sb₂ was successfully formed when 16 at.% of Mg was excessively added to the system. Nominal compositions of Mg_3.8Sb_2-xSn_x (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.008) were considered in this study. Thermoelectric properties were evaluated in terms of Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity. A peak ZT value ≈ 0.32 was found for the specimen Mg_3.8Sb_1.994Sn_0.006 at 873 K, showing an improved ZT value compared to intrinsic one. Transport properties were also evaluated and discussed.