title: Driving perpendicular heat flow: (p×n)-type transverse thermoelectrics for microscale and cryogenic Peltier cooling.
abstract: Whereas thermoelectric performance is normally limited by the figure of merit ZT, transverse thermoelectrics can achieve arbitrarily large temperature differences in a single leg even with inferior ZT by being geometrically tapered. We introduce a band-engineered transverse thermoelectric with p-type Seebeck in one direction and n-type orthogonal, resulting in off-diagonal terms that drive heat flow transverse to electrical current. Such materials are advantageous for microscale devices and cryogenic temperatures--exactly the regimes where standard longitudinal thermoelectrics fail. InAs/GaSb type II superlattices are shown to have the appropriate band structure for use as a transverse thermoelectric.
authors.affiliation: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
authors.forename: Chuanle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Birner
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heinselman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grayson