Structure and Doping Determined Thermoelectric Properties of Bi₂Se₃Thin Films Deposited by Vapour–Solid Technique

Abstract

In this work, a simple catalyst-free vapour-solid deposition method was applied for controlled deposition of two types (planar and disordered) of continuous Bi <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> Se <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> nanostructured thin films on different (fused quartz/glass, mica, graphene) substrates. Characterisation of electron transport (type, concentration and mobility of the main charge carriers) and thermoelectric properties (Seebeck coefficient and power factor) showed that proposed in this work deposition method allows to obtain Bi <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> Se <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> thin films with power factor comparable and even higher than reported for the Bi <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> Se <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy technique. Power factor of the best obtained thin films can be significantly improved by introduction Sb or Fe dopants in low concentrations.