Second Year Activities to grant FA9550 18 1 0063 Thermoelectric Phenomena in Quasi One Dimensional Metals

The project objective is a breakthrough demonstration of enhanced thermoelectric materials for structural integration into aerospace components as a surface coating layer to provide multifunctional materials with thermoelectric energy harvesting and cooling effects 'for superior thermal management and higher system efficiency in self sustaining aerospace vehicles and platforms with unprecedented performance characteristics.' The technical approach is to form nanowires having a high degree of crystalline perfection and lateral dimensions in the range of three to ten nanometers that exhibit quantum size effects and room temperature ballistic electronic conduction over extended distances of wire length. This will be accomplished by the growth of extremely low defect density, single crystal metal and semi metal films that are subsequently patterned into nanowires by helium focused ion beam milling and encapsulated with dielectric materials having coherent epitaxial interfaces. Both the lateral quantum confinement and the crystalline perfection of the nanowires are expected to substantially reduce diffusive scattering of electrons and enable ballistic electron transport, establishing a novel regime of metal physics to be explored for thermoelectric phenomena.