Colin Lambert (Department of Physics, Lancaster University, UK):

Colin Lambert (Department of Physics, Lancaster University, UK):
04/26

2018. április 26. 15:00 - 16:00

ELTE Lágymányos Campus, Northern Building, 0.81 (Ortvay lecture hall)

04/26

2018. április 26. 15:00 - 16:00

ELTE Lágymányos Campus, Northern Building, 0.81 (Ortvay lecture hall)


From nanoelectronics to single molecule energy harvesting

Abstract:

This talk begins with an introduction to the field of single-molecule electronics, which harnesses expertise from physics and chemistry to design new ultra-thin-film materials and to realize circuit elements at the limit of miniaturization; this is a subfield of nanoelectronics in which the electronic components are single molecules. It then proceeds to an overview of how this expertise is being harnessed in the race to develop high-performance thermoelectric materials.

By 2025, the energy expended by U.S. IT infrastructure is predicted to reach one third of total U.S. consumption. This waste heat could be used to generate electricity economically, provided materials with a high thermoelectric efficiency could be identified. Generation of electricity from heat via the Seebeck effect is silent, environmentally friendly and requires no moving parts. Conversely, efficient Peltier cooling using such materials would have applications to on-chip cooling of CMOS-based devices. The demand for new thermoelectric materials has led to a world-wide race to develop materials with a high thermoelectric efficiency. At the level of fundamental science, it was demonstrated recently that molecular wires can mediate long-range phase-coherent tunnelling with remarkably low attenuation over distances of order 5 nm, even at room temperature. This creates the possibility of using quantum interference to engineer enhancement of thermoelectricity in molecular materials and suggests that nanometre-thin cross-plane architectures could be ideal for delivering high-efficiency thermoelectric materials and devices.


About the lecturer: