Simultaneous control of thermoelectric properties in p- and n-type materials by electric double-layer gating: New design for thermoelectric device

摘要

We report a novel design of a thermoelectric device that can control the thermoelectric properties of p- and n-type materials simultaneously by electric double-layer gating. Here, p-type Cu_2O and n-type ZnO were used as the positive and negative electrodes of the electric double-layer capacitor structure. When a gate voltage was applied between the two electrodes, holes and electrons accumulated on the surfaces of Cu_2O and ZnO, respectively. The thermopower was measured by applying a thermal gradient along the accumulated layer on the electrodes. We demonstrate here that the accumulated layers worked as a p-n pair of the thermoelectric device.