Annealing temperature influence on electrical properties of ion beam sputtered Bi2Te3 thin films

Ion beam sputtering process was used to deposit n-type fine-grained Bi2Te3 thin films on BK7 glass substrates at room temperature. In order to enhance the thermoelectric properties, thin films are annealed at the temperatures ranging from 100 to 400 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows that the films have preferred orientations in the c-axis direction. It is confirmed that grain growth and crystallization along the c-axis are enhanced as the annealing temperature increased. However, broad impurity peaks related to some oxygen traces increase when the annealing temperature reached 400 °C. Thermoelectric properties of Bi2Te3 thin films were investigated at room temperature. The Bi2Te3 thin films, including as-deposited, exhibit the Seebeck coefficients of −90 to −168 μV K−1 and the electrical conductivities of 3.92×102–7.20×102 S cm−1 after annealing. The Bi2Te3 film with a maximum power factor of 1.10×10−3 Wm−1 K−2 is achieved when annealed at 300 °C. As a result, both structural and transport properties have been found to be strongly affected by annealing treatment. It was considered that the annealing conditions reduce the number of potential scattering sites at grain boundaries and defects, thus improving the thermoelectric properties.