MOCVD Growth of Indium Phosphide Nanowire Networks for Thermoelectrics
Engineering
Electrical Engineering
MOCVD, or Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition, is a method for growing nanometer-scale semiconducting structures known as nanowires. Nanowires have special thermal and electrical properties which allow them to have potential uses in applications such as thermoelectric devices. Thermoelectric devices convert a temperature difference into a voltage difference, a source of electrical energy. These devices would support green power generation, since there is no harmful byproduct of this process. They can be used to collect waste heat from both industrial and personal sources and convert some of that waste heat to electrical energy. We hope to grow and characterize nanowires to build a successful thermoelectric device using reproducible nanowires grown in our lab. This paper consists of a historical background of the MOCVD process, a summary of the current state of thermoelectric devices and the benefits nanowires would bring, a theoretical discussion of nanowire properties, and an experimental section containing the work done in our lab thus far, and what we hope to accomplish in the future.
