Characterization of gold nanodots arrangements in SiO2/SiO2+Au nanostructured metamaterials

Effective thermoelectric materials have a low thermal conductivity and a high electrical conductivity. For this study, we have prepared a thermoelectric generator device of SiO2/SiO2+Au multi-nano-layered thin film systems using ion beam-assisted deposition followed by 5 MeV Si ion bombardment. The ion bombardment causes the Au atoms to nucleate into metallic nanoclusters. However, as the kinetic energy of the Si ions decreases with the depth of the sample, so does the electronic stopping power responsible for the Au nucleation. This produces variations in the size and spacing of the nanoclusters. Here, we are investigating the effects of the size and arrangement variations within the device on the electrical and thermal transports within the system. We characterized the thin film system, using I–V characterization, conductance measurement, quasi-static capacitance, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy.