Engineering the thermal phonon spectrum for thermoelectric energy conversion
- Creators
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Minnich, Austin
Abstract
The efficiency of thermoelec. (TE) devices depends on materials with low thermal cond., among other properties, but thermal phonons are sufficiently poorly understood that achieving this low thermal cond. remains challenging. Recent works have demonstrated that the thermal phonons responsible for heat conduction possess a broad mean free path spectrum, yet this spectrum remains unknown for most materials and is often approximated using av. values. In this talk, I will describe our efforts to directly measure and engineer the thermal phonon spectrum using computation and expt. Exptl., I will describe our efforts to directly measure the phonon mean free path spectrum using a new exptl. technique. Computationally, I will demonstrate the importance of considering the size distribution of nanostructures to achieve the min. thermal cond. in solids.
Additional Information
© 2015 American Chemical Society.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 60250
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20150915-092249967
- Created
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2015-09-15Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2020-03-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field