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

摘要

We report novel design for thermoelectric device which can controlthermoelectric properties of p-type and n-type materials simultaneously byelectric double-layer gating. Here, p-type Cu2O and n-type ZnO were used aspositive and negative electrodes of the electric double-layer capacitorstructure. When the gate voltage was applied between two electrodes, the holesand electrons were accumulated on the surface of Cu2O and ZnO, respectively.The thermopower was measured by applying thermal gradient along the accumulatedlayer on the electrodes. We demonstrate here that the accumulated layers areworked as a p-n pair of the thermoelectric device.