Thermoelectromechanical refrigeration based on transient thermoelectric effects

This letter introduces the concept of a thermoelectromechanical cooler (TEMC), which modifies a traditional thermoelectric cooler (TEC) by using intermittent contact of a mechanical element synchronized with an applied pulsed current. Using Bi2Te3 as the thermoelectric material, it is predicted that the maximum temperature drop across a TEMC operated under zero applied heat flux is about 35% higher than that of a TEC. This effectively increases the thermoelectric figure of merit for maximum temperature differential applications by a factor of 1.8. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.