Some results of these studies that Bi-Te-based films produced via sputtering, in imply which film growth is known to occur in a manner far from that of an equilibrium process, exhibit a microstructure quite different from that of their bulk counterparts.
For example, the x-ray diffraction (XRD) curves of the as-deposited films show several peaks with a very low intensity and only after annealing at elevated temperatures, some major peaks emerge strong, which makes post- annealing an essential process step for sputtered Bi-Te thermoelectric films
In this study, we investigated the effects of post-annealing on the microstructure of sputtered Bi-Te thin films annealed at various temperatures by carefully analyzing the microstructure with XRD and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
In addition, we checked how the microstructure changes affected the electrical and thermoelectric properties by measuring the carrier concentrations, electron mobilities and Seebeck coefficients.