Progress of microscopic thermoelectric effects studied by micro-and nano-thermometric techniques

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in microscopic thermoelectric effects using micro- and nano-thermometric techniques, highlighting their potential for improving heat management and energy efficiency in electronics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of experimental methods and findings related to thermoelectric effects at microscopic scales, addressing current challenges and future prospects.

Findings

Enhanced understanding of thermoelectric phenomena at micro- and nano-scales

Development of advanced thermometric techniques for heat measurement

Insights into improving thermoelectric device efficiency

Abstract

Heat dissipation is one of the most serious problems in modern integrated electronics with the continuously decreasing devices size. Large portion of the consumed power is inevitably dissipated in the form of waste heat which not only restricts the device energy-efficiency performance itself, but also leads to severe environment problems and energy crisis. Thermoelectric Seebeck effect is a green energy-recycling method, while thermoelectric Peltier effect can be employed for heat management by actively cooling overheated devices, where passive cooling by heat conduction is not sufficiently enough. However, the technological applications of thermoelectricity are limited so far by their very low conversion efficiencies and lack of deep understanding of thermoelectricity in microscopic levels.