Key Findings
A research team at Tohoku University, including Junya Kurahashi, Assistant Professor Yat Sou, and Professor Yuji Sutou, has demonstrated a 250-fold increase in the room-temperature power factor (PF) of chromium nitride (CrN) thin films compared to undoped films. This result was achieved by doping CrN with small amounts of titanium (Ti) and was published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A on October 12, 2026.
Technical Details
The team utilized reactive co-sputtering in a radio-frequency magnetron sputtering system to produce the films without heating the substrate. The process used thermally oxidized silicon (SiO₂/Si) and alkali-free glass substrates. Technical specifications for the deposition included:
- Base pressure: 5.0 × 10⁻⁵ Pa or lower
- Operating pressure: 0.14 Pa
- Gas flow rates: 5 sccm for argon (Ar) and 2 sccm for nitrogen (N₂)
- Targets: High-purity metallic chromium (Cr) and titanium (Ti)
The study focused on suppressing “nitrogen vacancies”—defects where nitrogen atoms are missing from the crystal—which typically act as scattering sources that impede electron movement in room-temperature CrN films.
Background & Context
Thermoelectric conversion relies on the Seebeck effect to convert temperature differences into electricity. However, materials often face a trade-off between the Seebeck coefficient (S) and electrical conductivity (σ). The power factor is defined as PF = S²σ. While PF measures electrical performance, the overall conversion efficiency is determined by the dimensionless figure of merit zT, which also accounts for thermal conductivity (κ) and absolute temperature (T).
Significance & Outlook
Traditional high-performance thermoelectric materials often require high-temperature sintering or crystallization, making them incompatible with flexible substrates or fine electronic circuits. By achieving a significant PF increase through room-temperature processing, this method facilitates the integration of thin-film power generation into heat-sensitive IoT sensors and other electronic devices to recover unused waste heat.
Source: https://xenospectrum.com/en/titanium-doped-chromium-nitride-thin-film-thermoelectrics/
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