Silicon nanopillars for thermoelectric energy generation

As a new member of staff at Heriot-Watt, this talk will start with a brief overview of the background and past work of Dr Bennett. This will include an introduction to the differential Hall technique – a novel doping characterisation method for semiconductors that will be established within IMPEE over the coming weeks. This will be followed by discussion of a current project – the investigation of Si nanopillars for energy-harvesting utilising the thermoelectric effect. While as a bulk material Si is a poor thermoelectric material, when fabricated in the form of nanopillars, Si thermoelectrics shows interesting promise. Findings in this field will be discussed and new XTEM, SEM and electrical/thermal conductivity results will be presented.