Recent advances in thermoelectrics

The thermoelectric field keeps going strong. Material figure of merit has been increased to values well above one, in nanostructured bulk thermoelectrics. To improve the materials´ properties further, we need a clear understanding of charge and heat carrier transport. In parallel, we need to study the thermoelectric devices and strategies to minimize parasitic losses which can reduce the device efficiency and develop new applications for the thermoelectric power generators. In this paper we report the recent advances in the first principles based phonon transport calculations, strategies to enhance the material efficiencies and advances in the solar thermoelectric generators.