Bahadir Kucukgok

Metal oxides for thermoelectric power generation and beyond

AbstractMetal oxides are widely used in many applications such as thermoelectric, solar cells, sensors, transistors, and optoelectronic devices due to their outstanding mechanical, chemical, electrical, and optical properties. For instance, their high Seebeck coefficient, high thermal stability, and earth abundancy make them suitable for thermoelectric power generation, particularly at a high-temperature regime. In this article, we review the recent advances of developing high electrical properties of metal oxides and their applications in thermoelectric, solar cells, sensors, and other optoelectronic devices. The materials examined include both narrow-band-gap (e.g., NaxCoO2, Ca3Co4O9, BiCuSeO, CaMnO3, SrTiO3) and wide-band-gap materials (e.g., ZnO-based, SnO2-based, In2O3-based). Unlike previous review articles, the focus of this study is on identifying an effective doping mechanism of different metal oxides to reach a high power factor. Effective dopants and doping strategies to achieve high carrier concentration and high electrical conductivities are highlighted in this review to enable the advanced applications of metal oxides in thermoelectric power generation and beyond.

Is ZnO as a universal semiconductor material an oxymoron

The wide-bandgap semiconductor ZnO has gained major interest in research community for its unique properties and wide range of applications. In this review article, we present synthesis techniques and a few emerging applications for ZnO. Common techniques for growing ZnO films are discussed briefly, and a detailed discussion of MOCVD growth of ZnO is provided citing previous experimental reports on this technique by our group and others. A few important and distinctive uses of ZnO are discussed for various applications focusing on the current limitations of ZnO to realize its feasibility in these applications.

The structural properties of InGaN alloys and the interdependence on the thermoelectric behavior

The III-Nitrides are promising candidate for high efficiency thermoelectric (TE) materials and devices due to their unique features which includes high thermal stability. A systematic study of the room temperature TE properties of metalorganic chemical vapor deposition grown InxGa1-xN were investigated for x =  0.07 to 0.24. This paper investigated the role of indium composition on the TE properties of InGaN alloys in particular the structural properties for homogenous material that did not show significant phase separation. The highest Seebeck and power factor values of 507 μV K−1 and 21.84 × 10−4 Wm−1K−1 were observed, respectively for In0.07Ga0.93N at room temperature. The highest value of figure-of-merit (ZT) was calculated to be 0.072 for In0.20Ga0.80N alloy at room temperature.

Spatial analysis of ZnO thin films prepared by vertically aligned MOCVD

Zinc Oxide thin films were grown using a homemade metallorganic chemical vapor deposition apparatus with a non-centrosymmetric groove for the substrate. Films grown with relatively constant thickness and varying temperatures were tested using photoluminescence spectrometry, ex-situ spectral reflectance, and ex-situ transmittance measurements at five distinct points. Results are analyzed to evaluate the spatial consistency in thickness and optical characteristics of the ZnO films.

Structural and optical analyses of AlxGa1−xN thin films grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

A series of AlxGa1−xN thin films with x = 0.20–0.60 were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on sapphire (0001) substrate using AlN buffer layer. High resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) was performed for (0002), (0004), and (0006) reflections to investigate the threading dislocation density in variation with Al composition by X-ray analysis technique; Williamson–Hall (WH) plot. A symmetric high resolution 2θ–ω scans exhibit high crystal quality for all the AlGaN samples. A room temperature deep ultraviolet (DUV) photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy (excitation at 248 nm) has also been employed to investigate the effect of various Al compositions on crystal structure of the thin film layers. It was observed that the band edge transition peak energy blueshifts from 3.87 eV for x = 0.23 to 4.55 eV for x = 0.47. In addition to the band edge transition, each spectrum also shows deep impurity transitions.

ZnO for solar cell and thermoelectric applications

ZnO-based materials show promise in energy harvesting applications, such as piezoelectric, photovoltaic and thermoelectric. In this work, ZnO-based vertical Schottky barrier solar cells were fabricated by MOCVD de- position of ZnO thin films on ITO back ohmic contact, while Ag served as the top Schottky contact. Various rapid thermal annealing conditions were studied to modify the carrier density and crystal quality. Greater than 200 nm thick ZnO films formed polycrystalline crystal structure, and were used to demonstrate Schottky solar cells. I-V characterizations of the devices showed photovoltaic performance, but but need further development. This is the first demonstration of vertical Schottky barrier solar cell based on wide bandgap ZnO film. Thin film and bulk ZnO grown by MOCVD or melt growth were also investigated in regards to their room- temperature thermoelectric properties. The Seebeck coefficient of bulk ZnO was found to be much larger than that of thin film ZnO at room temperature due to the higher crystal quality in bulk materials. The Seebeck coefficients decrease while the carrier concentration increases due to the crystal defects caused by the charge carriers. The co-doped bulk Zn0:96Ga0:02Al0:02O showed enhanced power factors, lower thermal conductivities and promising ZT values in the whole temperature range (300-1300 K).

Design of Shallow Acceptors in GaN through Zinc–Magnium Codoping: First-Principles Calculation

In this work, we propose a novel approach to reduce the ionization energy of acceptors in GaN through Zn–Mg codoping. The characteristics of the defect states and the valence-band maximum (VBM) were investigated via first-principles calculation. Our results indicated that the original VBM of the host GaN could be altered by Zn–Mg codoping, thus improving the p-type dopability. We show that the calculated ionization energy e(0/-) of the Zn–Mg acceptor is only 117 meV, which is about 90 meV shallower than that of the isolated Mg acceptor.

Room temperature GaN-based spin polarized emitters

Wide band gap dilute magnetic semiconductors have recently been of interest due to theoretical predictions of room temperature ferromagnetism in these materials. In this work Ga1-xGdxN thin films were grown by Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition. These films were found to be ferromagnetic at room temperature and electrically conducting. However, only GaN:Gd layers and devices grown with a TMHD3Gd precursor that contained oxygen showed strong ferromagnetism, while materials grown with an oxygen-free Cp3Gd precursor did not show ferromagnetic behavior. This experimental observation was consistent with first-principles calculations based on density functional theory calculations that we completed that showed the ferromagnetism was mediated by interstitial oxygen. The results confirmed the first successful realization of Ga1-xGdxN-based spin-polarized LED with 14.6% degree of polarization at 5000 Gauss is obtained.