Field emission cooling of thermoelectric semiconductor PbTe

M.S. Chung, A. Mayer, B.L. Weiss, N.M. Miskovsky, P.H. Cutler

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    We report a theoretical analysis of the cooling effect due to field emission from n-type PbTe, a typical thermoelectric material. We show that, by calculating the average energies of field and replacement electrons, the energy exchange in field emission from n-type PbTe always produces cooling. The resultant heat loss leads to cooling of up to a few tenths of an electron volt per field emitted electron. For n-type PbTe, the Nottingham energy exchange in field emission can be comparable to or greater than the Peltier coefficient.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalApplied Physics Letters
    Volume98
    Issue number24
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 13 Jun 2011

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