High efficiency thermoelectricity with indirect excitons in a transition-metal dichalcogenide nanostructure

ORAL

Abstract

High thermoelectric efficiency requires a large Seebeck coefficient and electric conductivity while maintaining low thermal conductivity. Recent development of modern synthesis techniques in nanomaterials provides new approaches to conquer such limits and usher the study of the thermoelectric effect into a new era. We propose to use indirect excitons (IEs) in two-dimensional TMDC nanostructures as a highly efficient thermoelectric device. We develop the exciton transport theory and numerically simulate the thermoelectric transport coefficients based on materials-specific parameters obtained from ab initio density functional theory calculations and experiments. Our numerical simulation shows that the excitons in bilayer TMDCs can dramatically enhance the figure of merit and the power factor an order of magnitude compared with those of separated TMDC monolayers. These enhancements are general consequences of increasing the Seebeck coefficient and electric conductivity of IEs simultaneously, thus demonstrating robustness for enhancing the thermoelectric effect.

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Presenters

  • Chunjing Jia

    Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Lab, SSRL Materials Science Division, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Stanford University

Authors

  • Chunjing Jia

    Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Lab, SSRL Materials Science Division, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Stanford University

  • Kai Wu

    Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  • Brian Moritz

    Stanford University, Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, SLAC and Stanford University, Institute for Materials and Energy Science, Stanford, SSRL Materials Science Division, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University

  • Thomas Devereaux

    Stanford University, Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Physics, Stanford University, SLAC and Stanford University, Institute for Materials and Energy Science, Stanford, SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Lab, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC, Stanford, SIMES, SLAC, and Stanford University, Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University