Fig. 4From: Preparation and Thermoelectric Characteristics of ITO/PtRh:PtRh Thin Film ThermocoupleThe electromotive force (a) and Seebeck coefficients (b) of ITO/PtRh:PtRh TFTC. The variation of the electromotive force (EMF) of ITO/PtRh: PtRh TFTC with temperature was shown in a. The EMF increased nonlinearly with increasing temperature difference between the hot junction and the cold junction. Negligible variation of EMF in different calibration cycles has been observed, indicating excellent stability and repeatability of TFTC with temperature up to 1000 °C. The Seebeck coefficients of the TFTC with different temperature gradient between hot and cold junction is shown in b, which also increased rapidly with increasing temperature gradient. We believe this is mainly induced by the variation of Seebeck coefficient of ITO with increasing temperature. As degenerate semiconductor material, the Seebeck coefficient varies with the degeneration level. The degeneration level would gradually decrease with increasing temperature until the intrinsic excitation occurred. As a result, the absolute value of the Seebeck coefficient of ITO increased significantly with increasing temperatureBack to article page