High thermoelectric power factor of pure and vanadium-alloyed chromium nitride thin films

Chromium-nitride based materials have shown unexpected promise as thermoelectric materials for, e.g., waste-heat harvesting. Here, CrN and (Cr,V)N thin films were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering. Thermoelectric measurements of pure CrN thin films show a low electrical resistivity between 1.2 and 1.5 × 10−3 Ωcm and very high values of the Seebeck coefficient and thermoelectric power factor, in the range between 370–430 μV/K and 9–11 ×...