Enhancement of transverse thermoelectric power factor in tilted Bi/Cu multilayer

Abstract

We investigated transverse thermoelectric response in tilted Bi/Cu multilayer. Estimation through an equivalent circuit model showed that transverse thermoelectric power factor (PF) reaching 155 μW/cm K2 is possible with optimum device parameters. Finite element analysis confirmed the validity of the estimation using tensorial representation, which implicitly assumes homogeneous anisotropy. The Bi/Cu multilayer was fabricated by pressure injection of molten Bi into a periodically slitted Cu block. The measurement of the fabricated sample verified an enhancement in transverse PF up to 50.1 μW/cm K2, which is approximately 1.5 times greater than the conventional PF of constituent Bi, 34 μW/cm K2.