Epitaxial Growth of Complex Metal Oxides

14.2. Thermoelectric figure of merit

The most widespread application of thermoelectrics is its use in thermocouples, which are used as temperature sensors in, for example, industrial processes and household ovens. A thermocouple is build up from two wires of different materials, where the temperature difference between the junction of the two materials and the other end of the wires is measured. Even though a thermocouple only measures a temperature difference, the absolute temperature can be determined if a reference junction is used. Most thermocouples use two different metallic wires, where the most important material property is the Seebeck coefficient, which should be different for the two materials to obtain a potential difference in response ...