Thermoelectricity An Introduction to the Principles

by MacDonald, D. K. C.

• ISBN13: 9780486453040
• ISBN10: 0486453049
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-27
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

Aimed at graduate-level students and those interested in "theoretical underpinnings," MacDonald's survey concentrates on conduction in solids, mainly metals. It supplies a highly readable history of thermoelectricity and includes an impressive amount of experimental data.

Table of Contents

1. General survey
1.1. Introduction	1	(3)
1.2. Seebeck and Peltier	4	(2)
1.3. The Kelvin (or Thomson) relations	6	(3)
1.4. Thomson heat and thermoelectric power	9	(2)
1.5. Estimates of magnitude of thermoelectric properties	11	(8)
1.5.1 Metals	12	(3)
1.5.2 Semiconductors	15	(4)
1.6. Non-equilibrium or phonon-drag effects	19	(5)
1.7. The influence of impurities and electron scattering	24	(13)
2. The Boltzmann equation and electron scattering
2.1. The Drude-Lorentz model	37	(2)
2.2. The Boltzmann equation	39	(8)
2.3. The scattering problem	47	(36)
2.3.1 Phonon drag	47	(1)
2.3.2 High temperatures	48	(2)
2.3.3 Low temperatures in pure metals	50	(11)
2.3.4 Electron-scattering by "normal" impurities	61	(8)
2.3.5 Scattering by "abnormal" impurities: "giant" thermoelectric powers	69	(14)
2.4. Conclusion	83	(3)
3. Phonon-drag and phonon scattering
3.1. Basic features	86	(5)
3.2. Phonon-drag thermoelectric power	91	(2)
3.3. Phonon-drag and phonon scattering at very low temperatures	93	(7)
3.4. Phonon-drag at high temperatures	100	(1)
3.5. Conclusions	101	(2)
4. A final miscellany
4.1. Thermoelectricity when more than one contribution is involved	103	(13)
4.1.1 Resultant S with multiple sources of electron scattering	106	(7)
4.1.2 Addition of Se and Sg	113	(1)
4.1.3 Two-band model	114	(2)
4.2. Some comments on thermoelectric refrigeration	116	(9)
4.2.1 A model problem at low temperatures	118	(7)
References	125	(4)
Index	129