The extended concept of a self‐compatible thermoelectric cooler

Traditional thermoelectric cooling relies on the Peltier effect which produces a limited temperature drop determined by the figure of merit, zT . Alternatively, if a thermoelectric cooler is self‐compatible ( u = s ), significant improvements in cooling efficiency and maximum temperature difference are achieved. In this paper, we present the one‐dimensional model of a u   =   s cooler with respect to the spatial coordinate. In particular, we restrict our description to a fully self‐compatible single element device where the compatibility factor for cooling is adjusted locally at any position along the element. Under these conditions, further characteristics of a u = s cooler become evident: the temperature profile and the cooling temperature as function of the electrical current are calculated. Finally, the performance of a u = s cooler is compared to that of a traditional Peltier cooler with equivalent figure of merit. The paper completes results published by Snyder et al. [Phys. Rev. B 86 , 045202 (2012)] and Seifert et al. [Phys. Status Solidi A 210 (7), 1407 (2013)].