Carrier Transport and Thermoelectric Properties of Differently Shaped Germanene (Ge) and Silicene (Si) Nanoribbon Interconnects

Here, we report a study of carrier transport and thermoelectric properties of silicene/germanene nanoribbon (SiNR/GeNR) interconnects of varying shapes (namely, “V,” “L,” “U,” and “S” shaped) with empirical tight binding-nonequilibrium Green's function approach. Our simulation shows that a significant reduction in both electron and phonon transmission in such differently shaped NRs compared to perfect ones. In terms of thermoelectric properties, Seebeck coefficient (S) variation in the range of -72.3 to 3.52 μV/K at 300 K for SiNR and -176 to -95.5 μV/K at 300 K for GeNR is observed in different pattern conditions. For Peltier coefficient (π), these ranges are -0.23 to 0.001 V for SiNR and -0.053 to -0.011 V for GeNR at 300 K. Simulation also shows significant change in thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) for a different pattern and temperature with peak ZT 0.09 at 800 K for “U”-shaped SiNR and 0.80 at 400 K for “L”-shaped GeNR.