Effect of substrate temperature and film thickness on the thermoelectric properties of In2Te3 thin films

•In2Te3 thin films were deposited using vacuum evaporation method.•Substrate temperature and film thickness dependent properties established.•Thermoelectric power increased with substrate temperature and declined at 473 K.•Thermo emf is inversely propositional to film thickness.•The maximum power factor of In3Te3 films found to be 27 μWm−1K−2 at 450 K.

Herein, the thermoelectric properties of vacuum deposited In2Te3 thin films were investigated by varying the substrate temperature and the thickness of the films. The thermo-electro motive force of the prepared films was found to increase with an increase in the substrate temperature up to 423 K and then decrease at 473 K due to the presence of mixed-phase structure. The maximum thermoelectric power of 220 μV/K was observed for the films deposited at 423 K substrate temperature, which was found to decrease with increase in thickness. The films deposited at 423 K with 150 nm thickness showed maximum power factor of 27 μWm−1K−2 at 450 K. These observations are explained on the basis of structural, morphological and compositional changes.

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