Impact of Oxygen Stoichiometry on the Thermoelectric Properties of Bi₂Sr₂Co₂O_yThin Films

Abstract

In this study, we present a comprehensive analysis of the thermoelectric (TE) properties of highly c-axis-oriented thin films of layered misfit cobaltates Bi2Sr2Co2O y . The films exhibit a high c-axis orientation, facilitating precise measurements of electronic transport and TE properties along the a–b crystallographic plane. Our findings reveal that the presence of nearly stoichiometric oxygen content results in high thermopower with metallic conductivity, while the annealing of the films in a reduced oxygen atmosphere eliminates their metallic behavior. According to the well-established Heike’s limit, the thermopower tends to become temperature independent when the thermal energy significantly exceeds the bandwidth, which provides a rough estimation of charge carrier density by using the Heike’s formula. This observation suggests that the dominant contribution to the thermopower comes from the narrow Co–t2g bands near the Fermi energy. Our study demonstrates that the calculated thermopower value using Heike’s formula, based on the Hall electron density of the Bi2Sr2Co2O y thin films at 300 K, aligns well with the experimental results, shedding light on the intriguing TE properties of this family of layered cobaltate oxide films.