ABSTRACT
Intense research e¤orts have been devoted to understanding how surfaces and interfaces in£uence properties at the nanoscale level in crystalline nanowires (NWs) from semiconductors and metals. For instance, material properties such as mechanical strength, chemical sensing, photovoltaic conversion, and electrical transport have been dramatically improved by controlling the size, shape, and microstructure of NWs (Bauer et al. 2004; Baxter and Aydil 2005; Deng and Sansoz 2009; Wu et al. 2004, 2005). In this chapter, the e¤ects of sample size, grain boundaries, and surface morphology on the thermoelectric behavior of semiconductor NWs are addressed with particular focus on Si NWs, which are pertinent for power generation in microscale-and nanoscale-integrated devices. Future directions in this research œeld are also discussed.
