Expérimental
Research on new thermoelectric (TE) devices and materials for thermal management at nanoscale is highly demanded in nanoelectronics. Energy conversion of TE nanogenerators aims to recover waste heat in nanoelectronics, improving device performances. Active TE materials must have low thermal conductivity and high electrical conductivity, which is an antonymic behavior in common bulk materials but it can be achieved in nanostructured systems. The discovery of 2D materials has open new routes of investigation in this domain. The internship focuses on the experimental investigation of the electric, thermoelectric and thermal properties of devices based on nanostructured graphene, allowing to engineer new TE low dimensional materials and also to investigate fundamental properties relative to phonon and electron transport. Nanostructuring will be engineered by a network of holes in the few hundreds of nm range, aiming to control separately the phonon and electron mean free paths. The student will be involved in sample fabrication in clean room and electrical measurements. The team has recently demonstrated the ability of achieving a complete thermoelectrical characterization of 2D materials-based devices and has already achieved promising preliminary results. The team’s expertise in charge ransport in 2D materials and in clean room nano fabrication will be exploited in the project.