Non-Linear Thermoelectric Devices with Surface-Disordered Nanowires

We reviewed some recent ideas to improve the efficiency and power output of thermoelectric nano-devices. We focused on two essentially independent aspects: (i) increasing the charge current by taking advantage of an interplay between the material and the thermodynamic parameters, which is only available in the non-linear regime; and (ii) decreasing the heat current by using nanowires with surface disorder, which helps excite localized phonons at random positions that can strongly scatter the propagating phonons carrying the thermal current.