Field emission enhanced semiconductor thermoelectric cooler

Abstract

Initial experimental results on the fabrication and measurements of a prototype field emission enhanced thermoelectric cooler device is reported. The device is based upon a silicon needle arrays fabricated by a focused ion beam technique. The device uses an electric field modulated current to transport heat from a cold source to a hot source via n- and p-type carriers. Cooling measurements are carried out in UHV system using both thermocouple and optical thermometry.