Modified laser ablation process for nanostructured thermoelectric nanomaterial fabrication

A modified pulsed laser deposition process was used to enhance the nanostructure generation inside Bi2Te3 nanocrystals. In this process, an additional femotosecond laser beam was used to add an energy shock on the ablated flume, which can result in rich nanostructures embedded inside Bi2Te3 nanocrystals. A large Si wafer was used to ‘freeze’ such nanostructures and to effectively collect such nanostructured nanocrystals for further processing. The generated nanocrystals were studied by X-ray diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy, and the results prove the existence of such embedded nanostructures. Such nanocrystals were also characterized electrically and thermally for the conductivity measurements.