Thermoelectrics: Basic Principles and New Materials Developments is intended to serve as an in-depth analysis of thermoelectric theory, an overview of present day thermoelectric materials and devices, and as an updated source of information on the most studied recent thermoelectric materials developments. The main emphasis is on a basic understanding of the concepts and experimental techniques needed to propel researchers towards new and novel classes of thermoelectric materials with enhanced properties. The aim is to assist researchers in the field. The text is an expanded edition of a previous text Electronic Refrigeration by one of the authors, Julian Goldsmid. Half of the text is devoted to research that has taken place since Thermoelectrics: Basic Principles and New Materials Developments of that text. In addition, emphasis is placed on new materials research and developments.
1 Historical Development.- 2 Transport of Heat and Electricity in Solids.- 3 Selection and Optimization Criteria.- 4 Measurement and Characterization.- 5 Review of Established Materials and Devices.- 6 The Phonon-Glass Electron-Crystal Approach to Thermoelectric Materials Research.- 7 Complex Chalcogenide Structures.- 8 Low-Dimensional Thermoelectric Materials.- 9 Thermionic Refrigeration.- References.
"Beginning around 1990 concerns regarding refrigerant fluids and interest in cooling electronics led to renewed activity in the science and technology of alternative refrigeration. Thermoelectric cooling mechanisms, thermomagnetic effects and thermionic emission including the fundamentals of the implementation of these basic mechanisms comprise the book's subject. [...] Therefore the book can serve as a reference to experimentalists [...] ."
– Vladimir Sládek, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 999, 2002)