Electric-field-caused Thermoelectric Effects of a Thin Films Made of a Single Conductive Material

It is generally believed that the Peltier effect and Seebeck effect could only be observed in a circuit made up of at least two dissimilar conductors; similar effects could never be observed in a circuit made up of a single material. In this paper, we propose a method to realize such thermoelectric effects in a circuit made up of a single conductor. In our model, an external electric field is applied to a part of a thin film made of a single metal, the external electric field changes the energy states of the free electrons in the electric-field-affected part, creating potential barriers between the electric-field-affected part and the unaffected parts. Our analysis shows that thermoelectric effects similar to the Peltier–Seebeck effect can also be observed in this model.