Design and characterization of cold point thermoelectric coolers

We describe structured point-contact thermoelectric devices that confine the thermal gradients and electric fields at the boundaries of the cold end, and exploits the reduction of thermal conductivity at the interfaces, tunneling properties of point contacts, and the poor electron-phonon coupling at the junctions. We propose a theory of the structured cold point metal-semiconductor contacts and detail the design of cold point thermoelectric coolers. Temperature and electrical measurements of prototype cold point coolers using bismuth chalcogenides in vacuum indicate doubling of the thermoelectric figure-of-merit ZT values to the range of 1.4-1.7 at room temperature.