A Photothermoelectric Effect in Graphene

Denis Basko (1)

1 LPM2C - Laboratoire de physique et modélisation des milieux condensés

A conventional thermocouple consists of two different metal wires placed in contact with each other. When the junction is heated and the free ends are kept cold, a voltage can be measured across the two free ends. If the metals are the same, then no voltage should appear. On page 648 of this issue, Gabor et al. ( 1) report a thermo couple effect that contradicts this conventional expectation. Upon heating a junction made of a single graphene sheet by shining laser light on it, they found that a voltage does develop across the junction. The observed photothermoelectric effect could be potentially exploited in novel optoelectronic devices.

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]

Denis Basko. A Photothermoelectric Effect in Graphene. Science, 2011, 334, pp.610. ⟨10.1126/science.1214560⟩. ⟨hal-00642464⟩