A room-temperature terahertz (THz) detector based on a thermoelectric frequency selective surface (FSS) has been numerically simulated, designed, fabricated, and tested. The FSS has been fabricated from a 150 nm thin Bi₈₈Sb₁₂ thermoelectric film with the engraved periodic Greek crosses. The detector prototype has been tested under the 0.14 THz radiation exposure and showed a voltage response due to the photo-thermoelectric effect up to 0.13–0.18 mV, and voltage responsivity equal to 14–20 mV/W. The detector based on the FSS has shown voltage responsivity up to three times higher in comparison with the detector based on the continuous film. Thermal imaging has shown a temperature increase in the FSS up to 1.5 K under the THz exposure. The obtained results demonstrate prospects for utilization of the Bi₈₈Sb₁₂ FSS detector as a low cost, compact, high-speed, highly sensitive room-temperature THz detector.

We report results of galvanomagnetic and terahertz time-domain spectroscopy measurements on thin films of Bi ${}_{1-x}$ Sb ${}_x$ on polyimide and mica substrates with various antimony concentrations (x from 0 to 15 %) and film thickness (70, 150 nm). The resistivity, Hall coefficient and magnetoresistivity of the films were measured experimentally in the magnetic field of 0.65 T at room temperature. Mobility and concentration of electrons and holes in the film plane were calculated using the transport coefficients. The terahertz time-domain spectroscopy is used to measure the complex conductivity and permittivity of Bi ${}_{1-x}$ Sb ${}_x$ thin films on the dielectric substrates in the frequency range from 0.2 to 1 THz. The plasma frequency, relaxation time, DC conductivity and effective carrier mass were extracted from these data and evaluated as functions of the Sb concentration for different film thickness and substrate. We observed that the film magnetoresistivity decreases with increasing the Sb concentration and for most of the films the Hall coefficient is negative and depends on the external factors insignificantly. We show that the mobility of charge carriers weakly depends on Sb concentration, which confirms the assertion about the scattering of carriers on themselves and not on defects in the structure. It was revealed that film static and dynamic resistivity (conductivity) as well as dielectric permittivity depend on Sb content and the film thickness. The results may be used for development of various thermoelectric, electronic and optical devices, such as THz detectors or components which can control the properties of THz radiation.

The effect of modification of the surfaces of bismuth thin films with an antimony layer of 10 nm thick was studied. Three types of structures deposited onto mica substrates are compared: a bismuth film, an antimony layer as a sublayer for the bismuth film, and an antimony layer as the coating of the bismuth film. A substantial difference in the galvanomagnetic properties of the obtained structures is revealed in the dependence on the position of the antimony layer in the structure and on the bismuth-film thickness.

We report on the production of 200 and 600 nm thick Bi films on mica substrate with 10 nm thick Sb sublayer between Bi and mica. Two types of films have been studied: block and single crystal. Films were obtained using the thermal evaporation technique using continuous and discrete spraying. Discrete spraying allows smaller film blocks size: 2–6 $\mathsf{\mu }$ m compared to 10–30 $\mathsf{\mu }$ m, obtained by the continuous spraying. Single crystal films were made by the zone recrystallization method. Microscopic examination of Bi films with and without Sb sublayer did not reveal an essential distinction in crystal structure. A galvanomagnetic study shows that Sb sublayer results in the change of Bi films properties. Sb sublayer results in the increase of specific resistivity of block films and has no significant impact on single crystal films. For single-crystal films with Sb sublayer with a thickness of 200 nm the Hall coefficient has value 1.5 times higher than for the 600 nm thickness films at 77 K. The change of the Hall coefficient points to change of the contribution of carriers in the conductivity. This fact indicates a change in the energy band structure of the thin Bi film. The most significant impact of the Sb sublayer is on the magnetoresistance of single-crystal films at low temperatures. The increase of magnetoresistance points to the increase of mobility of the charge carriers. In case of detecting and sensing applications the increased carriers mobility can result in a faster device response time.

We studied the line of bismuth and antimony thin films obtained by thermal evaporation with or without additional annealing or zone recrystallization under a coating. The dependence of film structure on the production technology and substrate type has been shown. The dependence of galvanomagnetic properties of thin films on the structure has been investigated.

The densification of a thermoelectric material based on p-type Ge–Si during spark plasma sintering is simulated. The simulation uses the finite-element method within the Comsol Multiphysics...