Thermoelectric properties of boron-carbide thin film and thin film based thermoelectric device fabricated by intense-pulsed ion beam evaporation

Crystallized B13C2 thin films were fabricated by intense pulsed-ion beam evaporation (IBE) method. Electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficients of the obtained films were 1×10−4 l/Ωm and 200 μV/K at 1000 K, respectively. These values were comparable to those of bulks. For the application of the thin films, since reasonable thermoelectric (TE) properties were confirmed for the B13C2 films fabricated, we attempted to develop 'in-plane' type TE device using B13C2 and SrB6 as p-type and n-type elements, respectively. With applying temperature difference to the fabricated device, thermo-electromotive force and electrical power were generated from the device we made, indicating that the device worked as a TE device. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the TE device composed of only boron-rich solids.