Sn-Se alloy core fibers

Tin selenide (SnSe) exhibits high thermoelectric (TE) performance, which is a promising TE candidate for thermal-electrical energy conversion. In this work, Sn-Se alloy core borosilicate glass-clad fibers with ∼94 μm core and ∼220 μm cladding in diameter were fabricated by a molten core drawing method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed the core to be highly crystalline and consist of SnSe and SnSe2 poly-crystal grains. Based on EPMA measurement, there exists an inter-diffusion process between the core and cladding ions during the fiber drawing. The Seebeck coefficient of the Sn-Se core is −151 μV/K. The electrical conductivity of the Sn-Se core is as high as 6.2 × 103 S/m, which is close to that of SnSe single crystals. The demonstration of fibers with TE core materials and the integration with the conventional fiber fabrication technique represents the first step in providing the building blocks for fiber-integrated TE devices.