APL Materials (Jan 2019)

Titanium-based thin film metallic glass as diffusion barrier layer for PbTe-based thermoelectric modules

  • Chia-Chi Yu,
  • Hsin-jay Wu,
  • Matthias T. Agne,
  • Ian T. Witting,
  • Ping-Yuan Deng,
  • G. Jeffrey Snyder,
  • Jinn P. Chu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5046826
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 013001 – 013001-8

Abstract

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The thin film metallic glass (TFMG) is an effective diffusion barrier layer for PbTe-based thermoelectric (TE) modules. Reaction couples structured with Cu/TFMG/PbTe are prepared via sputter-deposition and are annealed at 673 K for 8-96 h. The transmission line method is adopted for the assessment of electrical contact resistivity upon the PbTe/TFMG, and the value remains in the range of 3.3-2.5 × 10−9 (Ω m2). The titanium-based TFMG remains amorphous upon annealing at 673 K for 48 h and effectively blocks the inter-diffusion by not having grain-boundaries, which only allows the bulk diffusion between the metal electrode and the TE substrate.