Thermopower and thermal transport in metal-p-type semiconductor-metal structure

In this work we extend quantitatively the analysis of the thermoelectric phenomena in structures with charge carriers of the opposite signs. In a p-type semiconductor in the temperature field, nonequilibrium holes have been shown to emerge, hence the necessity of taking recombination into account occurs. Boundary conditions for the electrons and holes on the p-type semiconductor-metal contact interface that take into account the surface recombination and the opportunity of current flow through the corresponding surfaces have been stated. General expressions for thermo-emf and thermal flow in hole semiconductors are valid only at the existence of high recombination levels. With a weak recombination the hole current which is not found in metals does not exist in p-type semiconductors either, and thermo-emf is constantly formed only by electrons.