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.