Mechanical and thermoelectric properties of higher manganese silicide films

Higher manganese silicide (HMS, MnSi1.7) films have been deposited on glass, silicon and thermally oxidized silicon substrates by the methods of magnetron sputtering and thermal evaporation. Mechanical and thermo-electric properties of the films have been measured. The hardness and elastic modulus of the films are 10.0 similar to 14.5 GPa and 156 similar to 228 GPa, respectively. The sign of the Seebeck coefficient at room temperature is positive for all samples. The resistivity at room temperature is between 0.53 x 10(-3) and 45.6 x 10(-3) ohm-cm. The energy band gap calculated from the resistivity data for the film deposited on thermally oxidized silicon substrate is about 0.459 eV.