The thermoelectric performance of CdO ceramics was enhanced by simultaneously optimizing the electrical and thermal transport properties via a small amount of Zn doping （≤3%）. The introduction of Zn can obviously increase the electrical conductivity of CdO due to the simultaneous increase of carrier concentration and mobility, and eventually results in an improvement in power factor. Zn doping is also effective in suppressing the thermal conductivity of CdO because of stronger phonon scatterings from point defects, Zn-riched second phase, and grain boundaries. A best ZT of about 0.45 has been achieved in the Cd1-xZnxO systems at about 1000 K, which is comparable to the highest values reported for other n-type oxide TE materials.
High temperature electrical and thermal transport properties,that is,electrical conductivity,Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity,of CdO ceramics have been investigated.Because of the good electrical properties and low thermal conductivity,the dimensionless figure-of-merit ZT of the CdO ceramics reaches 0.34 at 1023 K.This value is comparable to the best reported ZT for the n-type oxide ceramic thermoelectric materials and remains as potential to be further improved by porosity controlling or nanostructuring.
Lateral photovoltaic （LPV） effects are observed in Bi2Sr2Co2Oy （BSCO） thin fihns. Upon illumination of a 532-111n constant laser, the lateral photovoltage is observed to vary linearly with tile laser position between two electrodes on tile film surface, and the position sensitivity can be enhmlced by coating a layer of graphite on the surface of the BSCO film as a light absorber. Results suggest that the LPV effect ill the thin fihn is independent of the photo-generated carriers but originates from thermoelectric effects. The present work demonstrates a potential application of BSCO films in position-sensitive photo （thermal） detectors.
Light-induced transverse thermoelectric effect is investigated in incline-oriented Bi2Sr2Co2Oy thin films covered with a graphite light absorption layer. Upon the illumination of a 980 nm cw laser, an enhanced voltage signal is detected and the improvement degree is found to be dependent on the thickness of the graphite layer. A two- dimensional （2D） heat transport model using the finite-difference method provides a reasonable explanation to the experimental data. Present results give some valuable instructions for the design of light absorption layers in this type of detector.
A Bi2Sr2Co2Oy/Si heterojunction is obtained by growing a layer of p-type oxygen-deficient Bi2Sr2Co2Oy film on a commercial n-type silicon wafer by pulsed laser deposition. Its rectifying and photovoltaic properties are studied in a wide temperature range from 20 K to 300 K. The transport mechanism under the forward bias can be attributed to a trap- filled space-charge-limited current conduction mechanism. Under the irradiation of a 532-nm continuous wave laser, a clear photovoltaic effect is observed and the magnitude ofphotovoltage increases as the temperature decreases, The results demonstrate the potential application of a Bi2SrzCo2Oy-based heterojunction in the photoelectronic devices.
