Provided is a thermoelectric material including a metal silicide film, and silicon particles dispersed in the metal silicide film, the total volume of the silicon particles being greater than the volume of the metal silicide film.

Provided is a thermoelectric material including metal oxide powder and thermoelectric powder. Thus, an internal filling rate is improved so that a Peltier effect can be maximized according to the increase of electrical conductivity and a Seebeck coefficient and the reduction of thermal conductivity, thereby enabling the improvement of the figure of merit (ZT) of a thermoelectric element.

The present invention provides a thermoelectric conversion material that has low thermal conductivity and that is stable at a high temperature, and a thermoelectric conversion module using the same. The thermoelectric conversion material includes a granular base material including a semiconductor, a fine particle with a guest material distributed in the granular base material, and a binder with the guest material on a grain boundary of the granular base material. An amount of the binder is equal to or smaller than an amount of the fine particle, an amount of the granular base material is larger than a total amount of the binder and the fine particle, and the semiconductor and the guest material are in an isolated state not forming a compound by a eutectic reaction, a eutectoid reaction, a peritectic reaction, a peritectoid reaction, a monotectic reaction, or a segregation reaction.

A thermoelectric conversion material according to the present disclosure includes Ge, Te, and Sb. The thermoelectric conversion material includes a first region and a second region. The content of Sb in the first region in terms of number density of atoms is higher than the content of Sb in the second region in terms of number density of atoms. The first region includes a dispersed phase.

A thermoelectric conversion element (100) of the present invention includes a first electrode (105) which has one side joined to a first surface (101a) of an n-type semiconductor via an n-side junction layer (102), and the other side joined to a first surface (103a) of a p-type semiconductor via a p-side junction layer (104), and a second electrode (106) which is joined to each of a second surface (101b) of the n-type semiconductor and a second surface (103b) of the p-type semiconductor via the n-side junction layer (102) and the p-side junction layer (104). Each of the n-type semiconductor (101) and the p-type semiconductor (103) has a composition represented by Formulas (1) and (2) below, and the n-side junction layer (102) and the p-side junction layer (104) include Al.
Mg.sub.2Si.sub.aSn.sub.1-a+A(1)
Mg.sub.mSi.sub.xSn.sub.yGe.sub.z+B(2).

A process for forming a doped nc-Si thin film thermoelectric material. A nc-Si thin film is slowly deposited on a substrate, either by hot-wire CVD (HWCVD) with a controlled H.sub.2:SiH.sub.4 ratio R=6-10 or by plasma-enhanced (PECVD) with a controlled R=80-100, followed by ion implantation of an n- or p-type dopant and a final annealing step to activate the implanted dopants and to remove amorphous regions. A doped nc-Si thin film thermoelectric material so formed has both a controllable grain size of from a few tens of nm to 3 nm and a controllable dopant distribution and thus can be configured to provide a thermoelectric material having predetermined desired thermal and/or electrical properties. A final annealing step is used to activate the dopants and remove any residual amorphous regions.

A thermoelectric conversion element includes a first electrode, a thermoelectric conversion material portion configured to convert heat into electricity, an intermediate layer arranged on the thermoelectric conversion material portion, a conductive bonding material arranged in between the intermediate layer and the first electrode to bond the first electrode to the intermediate layer, and a second electrode connected to the thermoelectric conversion material portion. The intermediate layer includes a first layer arranged on the thermoelectric conversion material portion and containing a dopant, and a second layer arranged on the first layer and configured to suppress diffusion of elements. The intermediate layer has an interface resistivity of not less than 0.0001 mcm.sup.2 and not more than 0.5 mcm.sup.2.

A thermoelectric semiconducting assembly. Two parallel plates, a first plate and a second plate, are spaced apart. A plurality of pellets are fitted into said first plate and into said second plate, each said pellet comprising a body, a first cap, and a second cap, said body including a silicon material, said first cap and said second cap including an electrically resistive ceramic material, each pellet in said second plate being connected to a pellet in said first plate. Each pellet includes a doped body, wherein half of said pellets are doped with a p-type dopant to form a p-type pellet and half of said pellets are doped with an n-type dopant to form an n-type pellet. Each plate includes p-type pellets and n-type pellets in an alternating pattern, and each p-type pellet in said first plate connects with an n-type pellet in said second plate, and wherein each n-type pellet in said first plate connects with a p-type pellet in said second plate.

A thermoelectric conversion module has a substrate, a plurality of first electrodes, a plurality of thermoelectric conversion elements 2, a plurality of second electrodes 4, and connectors 42. The plurality of thermoelectric conversion elements 2 are n-type elements, connected in series. The connector 42 is formed as a single unit with the second electrodes 4 and separate from the first electrodes 3. A receptor 33 that accepts the tip of the connector 42 is provided to each of the first electrodes 3. Six element rows 6 of five thermoelectric conversion elements 2 aligned along the X axis are arrayed along the Y axis. The receptors 33 are configured to accept connectors 42 of the same shape whether electrically connecting the thermoelectric conversion elements 2 within the element rows 6 or electrically connecting between adjacent element rows 6. The first electrodes 3 and second electrodes 4 are all the same shape.

A thermoelectric device and method based on creating a structure of nanoclusters in a composite metal and insulator material by co-depositing the metal and insulator material and irradiating the composite material to create nanoclusters of metal within the composite material. In one variation, the composite material may be continuously deposited and concurrently irradiated. A further variation based on a multilayer structure having alternate layers of metal/material mixture. The alternate layers have differing metal content. The layer structure is irradiated with ionizing radiation to produce nanoclusters in the layers. The differing metal content serves to quench the nanoclusters to isolate nanoclusters along the radiation track. The result is a thermoelectric device with a high figure of merit. In one embodiment, the multilayer structure is fabricated and then irradiated with high energy radiation penetrating the entire layer structure. In another embodiment, layers are irradiated sequentially during fabrication using low energy radiation.