ABSTRACT
Thermoelectric thin films of the well-known bulk materials mentioned above were investigated mainly
for scientific purposes. Since in general the transport properties of homogeneous thin films are less than
those of the corresponding bulk single crystals, no ZT improvement can be achieved by thin films.
Therefore, only thermoelectric thin-film devices requiring thin and highly integrated active materials,
e.g., radiation sensors (thermopiles), were produced. Since the performance of these devices nowadays is
mainly limited by technological setup and only to a small degree by performance of the materials used,
investigations on thermoelectric thin films played a lesser part.
