Search

Ag-Sb-Te (AST) thin film was successfully fabricated on a flexible polyimide substrate by using DC magnetron sputtering from the AgSbTe (AST) target. As-deposited samples were annealed at temperatures between 300 and 450°C under vacuum for 30 min. Then, uni-leg AST thin film thermoelectric modules of five elements were fabricated. Thermal annealing induced a change of thermoelectric characteristic of the thin film from p-type material (300–350°C) to n-type material (400–450°C) through the change in structures (amorphous to crystalline, atomic composition ratio and surface roughness, etc.). The highest power factor was 0.97 mW m−1 K−2 and 0.065 mW m−1 K−2 for p-type and n-type, respectively. The maximum power generation of the uni-leg AST thin film thermoelectric module was approximately 0.88 nW for p-type and 0.54 nW for n-type, with a temperature difference of around 20 K.

The Ag–Sb–Te (AST) thermoelectric thin film was prepared on soda-lime glass and SiO2 1-μm/Si-wafer substrates by DC magnetron sputtering method at the room temperature (RT). As-deposited thin film samples on both substrate were annealed in temperature range 573–773 K for 30 min within argon (Ar) atmosphere. The crystal structure, morphology, composition, electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient of as-deposited and annealed thin films are investigated. The results demonstrated that the effect of substrates was influenced the crystallinity, morphology and thermoelectric properties of the AST thin films within annealing temperature. Highlighted, the AST thin film on SiO2/Si-wafer substrate showed the highest power factor of 0.84 mW m−1 K−2 while the AST thin film on soda-lime glass substrate was around 0.053 mW m−1 K−2 at annealing temperature 773 K.