Diffusion theory of electrical contact resistance of "thermoelectric superlattice metal" couple

TL;DR

This paper develops a diffusion theory to analyze the electrical contact resistance in thermoelectric superlattice-metal interfaces, estimating resistance limits for different material models including traditional and Fivaz superlattices.

Contribution

It introduces a rigorous diffusion-based model for contact resistance in TES-metal interfaces, covering both traditional and Fivaz superlattice materials.

Findings

Estimated contact resistance limits for traditional thermoelectric materials.

Estimated contact resistance limits for superlattices described by Fivaz model.

Provided theoretical framework for understanding contact resistance in TES-metal couples.

Abstract

The paper proposes a strict diffusion theory of the electrical contact resistance of a thermoelectric superlattice (TES) - metal couple.The limits of the contact resistance for traditional thermoeletric materials with parabolic band spectrum and for superlattices described by Fivaz model are estimated.