Measurement of thermoelectric properties of individual bismuth telluride nanowires

Abstract

We have measured the thermoelectric properties of electrochemically deposited bismuth telluride (Bi/sub x/Te/sub 1-x/) nanowires with different atomic ratio or x. In this paper, we report the measurement method and the results for an individual nanowire from a batch with x found to be about 0.54. The Seebeck coefficient of the nanowire was found to be -30 /spl mu/V/K at temperature 300 K. The obtained electrical conductivity of the nanowire showed unusually weak temperature dependence, and the value at 300 K was only 5.6% lower than that of bulk Bi/sub 0.485/Te/sub 0.515/ crystal. The thermal conductivity of the nanowires was found to be 44% lower than that of bulk Bi/sub 0.485/Te/sub 0.515/ crystals.