Thermoelectrics Team

The Caltech Thermoelectrics Team

2007 Thermoelectrics Group Party

Jeff Snyder Is a Faculty Associate in the Materials Science Department at Caltech. He was a Senior Member of the Technical Staff in the thermoelectrics group at JPL for 9 years (1997-2006). He received his B.S. in physics, chemistry and mathematics at Cornell University and his Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University (1997) where he was a Hertz Fellow. His research interests include Solid State Chemistry, Physics and Engineering of thermoelectric and other energy materials. His current research focuses on Thermoelectric Materials and Engineering of Thermoelectric Devices. Since joining JPL/Caltech in 1997, Dr. Snyder has been investigating novel thermoelectric materials including antimonide Zintl phases, such as Yb14MnSb11 and Zn4Sb3, and nanostructured thermoelectric composites. He has developed capabilities for high temperature transport properties measurements of bulk materials. He has implemented novel empirical and analytical models for efficient power generation and spot cooling for both bulk and thin film devices. He has designed and tested elecrochemical MEMS micro-thermoelectric devices, portable power sources and energy harvesting systems for terrestrial and space applications. He has also participated as a consultant on a number of thermoelectric projects. Dr. Snyder has over 100 publications on thermoelectric materials, devices and applications. Dr. Snyder is a board member for the International Thermoelectric Society, organizer of the Materials Research Lectures at Caltech, and an Adjunct Professor at Cal Poly Pomona teaching MTE208 Electronic Materials.

Dr. Snyder's previous areas of research include Colossal Magnetoresistance materials and Metallic Ferromagnets (Stanford University) which involved materials synthesis, thin film deposition, and design, automation and analysis of electronic and magnetic measurements. At the Max Planck Institut für Festkörperrperforschung, Stuttgart, Germany (1992-93) he studied Intermetallic, Sub-nitride, and C60 intercalation solid state chemistry. At Cornell (1990-91) he studied chalchogenides.

Postdocs

Teruyuki Ikeda
Dr. Teruyuki Ikeda recieved is Dr. Eng. degree from Kyoto University (2000) He has worked as a Research Associate at the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research of Osaka University (1999 - 2004). Since joining Caltech in 2004 he has been studying nanostructured thermoelectrics, and in particular the synthesis and microstructural evolution of nanometer sized lamellae in PbTe-Sb2Te3 composites.

Eric Toberer

Eric S. Toberer is a Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Scholar in Materials Science. He earned his BS in Chemistry in 2002 from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. Eric then spent four years working with Ram Seshadri in the Materials Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the area of porous inorganic materials. Upon receiving his doctorate, Eric joined our group to look at spontaneous transformations in the solid state which give rise to nanostructured thermoelectric materials.

Ali Saramat

Ali Saramat received his B.S. from Boras University Collage and M.S. and Ph.D. from Chalmers University of Technology (2007) in Goteborg, Sweden. His Ph.D. thesis entitled “New Materials for Environmental Applications: Thermoelectrics and Low-Temperature Oxidation Catalysts” treated new materials for environmental applications.
Within his studies Ali Saramat was involved in preparation and characterization of new thermoelectric materials and catalysis. His synthesis research within thermoelectricity included Czochralski method as well as top-seeded growth technique. The crystals prepared were evaluated using EMPA, X-ray powder diffraction and single crystal diffraction. Thermoelectric properties such as Seebeck coefficient, Hall resistivity and electrical resistivity were analyzed using PPMS. Thermal diffusivity and specific heat measurements were performed using differential scanning calorimeter.
In 2006, Ali Saramat spent three months at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, Germany as visiting researcher. During that time, he worked with synthesis and evaluation of strongly correlated electron systems.
In addition, Ali Saramat’s Ph.D. research contained study of new catalyst materials for low-temperature oxidation reactions. Using liquid crystalline templating, he prepared hexagonal phase mesoporous Pt particles to make alumina supported catalysts for CO oxidation. The catalysts prepared were analyzed using SEM, EDS, TEM, SAXS, BET-isotherms, FTIR and high-throughput screening.
Currently at Caltech, Ali Saramat is working as a post-doctoral research fellow supported by the Bengt Lundqvist’s foundation. His focus in research will be mainly on preparation and characterization of new efficient thermoelectric materials.

Graduate Students

Andrew (Drew) May

Drew is studying the synthesis by mechanical alloying and thermoelectric properties of refractory thermoelectric materials such as Lanthanum Telluride La3-xTe4.

Affiliated Caltech Faculty

Sossina M. Haile

Vilupanur Ravi - Cal Poly Pomona

Former Members

Prof. Hirokazu Tatsuoka (Visiting Faculty), Shizuoka University, Japan

Frank Gascoin (postdoc), U. Montpellier, France

Richard Blair (JPL postdoc) , U. Central Florida

Collaborators from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Jean-Pierre Fleurial has been group supervisor of the Materials and Device Technologies group at JPL which includes the Thermoelectrics Team. Dr. Fleurial earned his Ph.D. in solid state physics and materials science from the National Polytechnique Institute of Lorraine, France, in 1988. During his Ph.D., he developed new growth techniques and theoretical models demonstrating that high quality single crystals of Bi2Te3 can have ZT values close to those usually achieved only with solid solutions. In 1988, Dr. Fleurial came to JPL as a National Research Council Resident Research Associate and joined the permanent staff in 1990. He was first involved with the optimization of Si-Ge alloys for thermoelectric power generation. He has calculated ternary and quaternary phase diagrams of Si-Ge alloys with dopants, and also performed diffusion and solid solubility studies, liquid phase epitaxial growth of Si-Ge. More recently, Dr. Fleurial has been actively involved with the study of novel promising thermoelectric materials, in particular compounds with the skutterudite structure. Dr. Fleurial has served on the board of the International Thermoelectric Society.

Thierry Caillat is a senior member of the technical staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology and task leader for the JPL Thermoelectrics Team. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science in 1991 from the National Polytechnique Institute of Lorraine, France. He then received a National Research Council Fellowship to study new materials for thermoelectric applications at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He joined the permanent staff at JPL in 1994. His primary research interests have focused on the identification and development of new thermoelectric materials and devices. He has developed transport properties models to optimize these materials for thermoelectric applications. In the last five years, he has played a key role in identifying several families of thermoelectric materials with superior thermoelectric properties, including skutterudites and b-Zn4Sb3-based materials. More recently, he has been involved in the studies of the integration of some of these new materials into advanced, segmented unicouples with superior performance. He is the author of over 30 articles in refereed technical journals and over 40 articles in technical conference proceedings. Dr. Caillat holds two patents on new thermoelectric materials and has two patents pending on new thermoelectric devices.
Dr. Caillat is chairman for the International Conference on Thermoelectrics in 2002 and has served on the International Advisory Board and Technical Program Committee of many International Conferences on Thermoelectrics since 1996. He has organized and chaired many sessions on thermoelectrics in various national and international conferences since 1993.

Chen-Kuo Huang received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing-Hua University (1978), M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing-Hua University (1980), and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University (1988). Dr. Huang is a senior member of the technical staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology.

Collaborators outsie JPL-Caltech