Doping effect on thermoelectric properties of MoS$_2$

Abstract

We systematically study thermoelectric properties of layered MoS$_2$ by doping, based on Boltzmann transport theory and first-principles calculations. We obtain optimal doping region (around 10$^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$) by looking closely to the temperature and doping level dependent thermopower, electrical conductivity, power factor (PF) and ultimately figure of merit (ZT) coefficient along in-plane and cross-plane directions. MoS$_2$ has a vanishingly small anisotropy of thermopower but a big anisotropy of electrical conductivity and electronic thermal conductivity in optimal doping region. $\kappa_e$ is comparable to $\kappa_l$ in the plane while $\kappa_l$ dominates over $\kappa_e$ across the plane. ZT can reach as high as 0.3 at around 700 K. In-plane direction is demonstrated to be more preferable for thermoelectric applications of MoS$_2$ by doping.