Direct observation of hot-electron-enhanced thermoelectric effects in silicon nanodevices

Huanyi Xue, Ruijie Qian, Weikang Lu, Xue Gong, Ludi Qin, Zhenyang Zhong, Zhenghua An (), Lidong Chen and Wei Lu ()
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Huanyi Xue: Fudan University
Ruijie Qian: Fudan University
Weikang Lu: Fudan University
Xue Gong: Fudan University
Ludi Qin: Fudan University
Zhenyang Zhong: Fudan University
Zhenghua An: Fudan University
Lidong Chen: Chinese Academy of Science
Wei Lu: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The study of thermoelectric behaviors in miniatured transistors is of fundamental importance for developing bottom-level thermal management. Recent experimental progress in nanothermetry has enabled studies of the microscopic temperature profiles of nanostructured metals, semiconductors, two-dimensional material, and molecular junctions. However, observations of thermoelectric (such as nonequilibrium Peltier and Thomson) effect in prevailing silicon (Si)—a critical step for on-chip refrigeration using Si itself—have not been addressed so far. Here, we carry out nanothermometric imaging of both electron temperature (Te) and lattice temperature (TL) of a Si nanoconstriction device and find obvious thermoelectric effect in the vicinity of the electron hotspots: When the electrical current passes through the nanoconstriction channel generating electron hotspots (with Te~1500 K being much higher than TL~320 K), prominent thermoelectric effect is directly visualized attributable to the extremely large electron temperature gradient (~1 K/nm). The quantitative measurement shows a distinctive third-power dependence of the observed thermoelectric on the electrical current, which is consistent with the theoretically predicted nonequilibrium thermoelectric effects. Our work suggests that the nonequilibrium hot carriers may be potentially utilized for enhancing the thermoelectric performance and therefore sheds new light on the nanoscale thermal management of post-Moore nanoelectronics.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39489-z

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