MeV Si ions bombardment effects on the thermoelectric properties of Co0.1SbxGey thin films

We have grown three different monolayer Co0.1SbxGey (x = 2,4,11 and y = 15,7,15) thin films on silica substrates with varying thickness between 100 and 200 mm using electron beam deposition. The high-energy (in the order of 5 MeV) Si ion bombardments have been performed on samples with varying fluencies of 1 x 10(12), 1 x 10(13), 1 x 10(14) and 1 x 10(15) ions/cm(2). The thermopower, electrical and thermal conductivity measurements were carried out before and after the bombardment on samples to calculate the figure of merit, ZT. The Si ions bombardment caused changes on the thermoelectric properties of films. The fluence and temperature dependence of cross plane thermoelectric parameters were also reported. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) was used to analyze the elemental composition of the deposited materials and to determine the layer thickness of each film. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.