Thermoelectric property measurement for a Peltier current lead

Abstract

The Peltier current lead (PCL) has been studied since it was proposed as one of the thermoelectric applications. Due to the Peltier effect, it is expected that the PCL reduces the heat leak from the room temperature side to the low temperature side of a cryogenic system. Thermoelectric materials are installed into the copper (or aluminum) leads at the room temperature side and the copper leads are connected to the superconducting magnet. The present performance of the thermoelectric material can achieve a high current with a relatively small Peltier element. We measure the temperature dependence of the Seebeck coefficient and resistivity with BiTe thermoelectric materials. Optimum current is determined when PCLs apply to a super-conducting system with the simplest model. The heat leak reduction at the optimum current operation is estimated with several thermoelectric elements, and it is expected that the heat leak reduces by about 25%.