Thermoelectric prospects of nanomaterials with spin-orbit surface bands

Nanostructured composites and nanowire arrays of traditional thermoelectrics like Bi, Bi(1-x)Sb(x) and Bi(2)Te(3) have metallic Rashba surface spin-orbit bands featuring high mobilities rivaling that of the bulk for which topological insulator behavior has been proposed. Nearly pure surface electronic transport has been observed at low temperatures in Bi nanowires with diameter around the critical diameter, 50 nm, for the semimetal-to semiconductor transition. The surface contributes strongly to the thermopower, actually dominating for temperatures T < 100 K in these nanowires. The surface thermopower was found to be -1 T microvolt/(K^2), a value that is consistent with theory. We show that surface electronic transport together with boundary phonon scattering leads to enhanced thermoelectric performance at low temperatures of Bi nanowire arrays. We compare with bulk n-BiSb alloys, optimized CsBi(4)Te(6) and optimized Bi(2)Te(3). Surface dominated electronic transport can be expected in nanomaterials of the other traditional thermoelectrics.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure

Estimating the First-year Corrosion Losses of Structural Metals for Continental Regions of the World

The knowledge of the first-year corrosion losses of metals (K1) in various regions of the world is of great importance in engineering applications. The K1 values are used to determine the categories of atmospheric corrosivity, and K1 is also the main parameter in models for the prediction of long-term corrosion losses of metals. In the absence of experimental values of K1, their values can be predicted on the basis of meteorological and aerochemical parameters of the atmosphere using the dose-response functions (DRF). Currently, the DRFs presented in ISO 9223:2012(E) /1/ standard are used for predicting K1 in any region of the world, along with the unified DRFs /2/ and the new DRFs /3/. The predicted values of corrosion losses (K1pr) of carbon steel, zinc, copper and aluminum obtained by various DRFs for various continental regions of the world are presented. In this work we used the atmosphere corrosivity parameters and experimental data on the corrosion losses of metals for the first year of exposure (K1exp) for the locations of the tests performed under the international UN/ECE program, the MICAT project, and the Russian program. For the first time, a comparative assessment of the reliability of various DRFs is given by comparing the values of K1pr and K1ex using graphical and statistical methods. The statistical indicators of reliability of predicting the corrosion losses of metals are calculated for various categories of atmosphere corrosivity. It is shown that the new dose-response functions offer the highest reliability for all categories of atmosphere corrosivity

Experimental investigation of the radial structure of energetic particle driven modes

Alfv\'en eigenmodes (AEs) and energetic particle modes (EPMs) are often excited by energetic particles (EPs) in tokamak plasmas. One of the main open questions concerning EP driven instabilities is the non-linear evolution of the mode structure. The aim of the present paper is to investigate the properties of beta-induced AEs (BAEs) and EP driven geodesic acoustic modes (EGAMs) observed in the ramp-up phase of off-axis NBI heated ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) discharges. This paper focuses on the changes in the mode structure of BAEs/EGAMs during the non-linear chirping phase. Our investigation has shown that in case of the observed down-chirping BAEs the changes in the radial structure are smaller than the uncertainty of our measurement. This behaviour is most probably the consequence of that BAEs are normal modes, thus their radial structure strongly depends on the background plasma parameters rather than on the EP distribution. In the case of rapidly upward chirping EGAMs the analysis consistently shows shrinkage of the mode structure. The proposed explanation is that the resonance in the velocity space moves towards more passing particles which have narrower orbit widths.Comment: submitted to Nuclear Fusio