ABSTRACT
Silicon is the second most abundant element in the earth's crust, and it has been widely used in semiconductor devices. The thermal conductivity of single-crystalline silicon is 148 W/m K at 300 K. Heavily doped crystalline silicon possesses most physical properties that identify a good candidate for thermoelectric (TE) power generation applications, such as high melting point, high thermal stability, excellent mechanical properties, high Seebeck coefficient, and high electrical conductivity. However, silicon does not offer a high figure-of-merit value due to its high thermal conductivity. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was discovered that the high thermal conductivity of silicon could be significantly reduced through Si–Germanium alloying due to point defects. The Hall coefficients and TE powers of pure silicon were measured as early as the 1910s. The thermal conductivity of silicon is around 150 W/m K, too high for it to be a good TE material.
