Thermoelectric properties of epitaxial and topotaxial NaxCoO2 thin films

We report structural, electrical, and thermopower properties of epitaxial and topotaxial NaxCoO2 thin films on (0001) sapphire substrate. Topotaxial NaxCoO2 films were prepared by converting an epitaxial Co3O4 film to NaxCoO2 by annealing in Na vapor and epitaxial NaxCoO2 films were obtained by pulsed laser deposition. All the films are c-axis oriented. For topotaxial films, annealing in different Na. vapor pressures resulted in films with different Na concentrations, which showed distinct transport properties. For directly deposited epitaxial films by pulsed laser deposition, deposition parameters are found to control the Na concentration and hence the film properties. The largest thermoelectric power of the samples made by different methods is found to be similar in the range of 70-100 mu V/K at room temperature.