Principle for Detecting Resonant States in Thermoelectric Materials Using a Superconductor Tunneling Junction

Recent theoretical studies indicate that the existence of resonant states near the Fermi level can lead to a significant improvement in the thermoelectric figure of merit. Experimental investigation of this concept requires determination of the existence of these resonant states. In this paper, we report a theoretical calculation on the I–V characteristic of a thermoelectric/insulator/superconductor-based tunneling junction. The results show that the resonant states can be detected by measuring the I–V characteristic of such a superconducting tunneling junction, which provides a theoretical basis for development of a measurement technique to detect the resonant states for thermoelectric materials.