Study of Thermometry in Two-Dimensional Sb<inf>2</inf>Te<inf>3</inf> from Temperature-Dependent Raman Spectroscopy

Discovery of two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators (TIs) demonstrates tremendous potential in the field of thermoelectric since the last decade. Here, we have synthesized 2D TI, Sb2Te3 of various thicknesses in the range 65–400 nm using mechanical exfoliation and studied temperature coefficient in the range 100–300 K using micro-Raman spectroscopy. The temperature dependence of the peak position and line width of phonon modes have been analyzed to determine the temperature coefficient, which is found to be in the order of 10–2 cm−1/K, and it decreases with a decrease in Sb2Te3 thickness. Such low-temperature coefficient would favor to achieve a high figure of merit (ZT) and pave the way to use this material as an excellent candidate for thermoelectric materials. We have estimated the thermal conductivity of Sb2Te3 flake with the thickness of 115 nm supported on 300-nm SiO2/Si substrate which is found to be ~ 10 W/m–K. The slightly higher thermal conductivity value suggests that the supporting substrate significantly affects the heat dissipation of the Sb2Te3 flake.