Transparent Amorphous Oxide Semiconductor as Excellent Thermoelectric Materials

It is demonstrated that transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors (TAOS) can be excellent thermoelectric (TE) materials, since their thermal conductivity (κ) through a randomly disordered structure is quite low, while their electrical conductivity and carrier mobility (μ) are high, compared to crystalline semiconductors through the first-principles calculations and the various measurements for the amorphous In−Zn−O (a-IZO) thin film. The calculated phonon dispersion in a-IZO shows non-linear phonon instability, which can prevent the transport of phonon. The a-IZO was estimated to have poor κ and high electrical conductivity compared to crystalline In2O3:Sn (c-ITO). These properties show that the TAOS can be an excellent thin-film transparent TE material. It is suggested that the TAOS can be employed to mitigate the heating problem in transparent display devices