Nanowires for heat conversion

TL;DR

This review discusses recent advances in the thermoelectric properties of semiconducting nanowires, highlighting growth control, heterostructure integration, and experimental methods for property investigation.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of strategies for enhancing thermoelectric performance and surveys experimental techniques used in nanowire research.

Findings

Enhanced thermoelectric performance through heterostructure engineering

Advanced growth techniques enable tailored nanowire properties

Survey of experimental methods for thermoelectric measurement

Abstract

This review focuses on the investigation and enhancement of the thermoelectric properties of semiconducting nanowires (NWs). NWs are nanostructures with typical diameters between few to hundreds of nm and length of few to several microns, exhibiting a high surface-to-volume ratio. Nowadays an extraordinary control over their growth has been achieved, enabling also the integration of different types of heterostructures, which can lead to the engineering of the functional properties of the NWs. In this review, we discuss all concepts which have been presented and achieved so far for the improvements of the thermoelectric performances of semiconducting NWs. Furthermore, we present a brief survey of the experimental methods which enable the investigation of the thermoelectric properties of these nanostructures.