Synthesis and Characterization of Al- and SnO2-Doped ZnO Thermoelectric Thin Films

The effect of SnO2 addition (0, 1, 2, 4 wt.%) on thermoelectric properties of c-axis oriented Al-doped ZnO thin films (AZO) fabricated by pulsed laser deposition on silica and Al2O3 substrates was investigated. The best thermoelectric performance was obtained on the AZO + 2% SnO2 thin film grown on silica, with a power factor (PF) of 211.8 μW/m·K2 at 573 K and a room-temperature (300 K) thermal conductivity of 8.56 W/m·K. PF was of the same order of magnitude as the value reported for typical AZO bulk material at the same measurement conditions (340 μW/m·K2) while thermal conductivity κ was reduced about four times.