Novel Ag nanowire array with high electrical conductivity and fast heat transfer behavior as the electrode for film devices

In this paper, it was found that phonons/electrons travel across the (1 1 1)-preferred Ag nanowire array like a bullet with very few scattering, similarly to ballistic transport. Here highly ordered, high-crystal-quality, high-density Ag nanowire array was successfully fabricated by the simple magnetron sputtering method in a large scale. It is interesting to observe that high electrical conductivity and fast heat transfer behavior (455 W/m·K) of the vertically aligned Ag nanowire array is superior to that of the ordinary Ag film. The films have been integrated into low-dimension cross-plane devices using mask-assisted deposition technology. For the typical device with 50 pairs of p/n couples, the output voltage and maximum power were up to 100.5 mV and 168.3 μW, respectively, for a temperature difference of 5 K. The maximum power of the device with ordered Ag nanowire array electrode would be over 10 times larger than that of the device with ordinary structure Ag electrode. The cooling performance of the device with Ag nanowire array electrode was over 121% higher than that of the device with ordinary Ag film electrode at current of 150 mA. The growth and transport mechanisms of (1 1 1)-preferred Ag NW array electrode have been discussed.