Low temperature TEP measurement setup for thin plates and films

A setup to measure thermoelectric power (TEP) of thin plates and films is designed, developed and tested to work in 77K-300K range. Sample is pressure mounted flat on two Cu blocks having independent resistive heaters of appropriate power and platinum resistance thermometers (PRTs), which results in several advantages. For instance, the arrangement allows for very large range of PID controlled stable temperature gradients 0.5 to 100 K between the blocks, and the distance between the blocks can be adjusted according to the sample size. The measurements can be performed in both vacuum and inert gas atmosphere. The dimensions of the sample-holder-unit have been optimized to fit commercial Liquid Nitrogen/Helium dewars with neck sizes >56 mm. The setup also allows resistivity ρ(T) measurements and with suitable temperature sensors can be easily adapted to lower temperatures down to 4.2K. To check the performance, variety of measurements were carried out on different samples of Al, Cu, Mo, MgB2, YBa₂Cu₃O₇ superconductor and Bi₂Te₃ in thin plate and film forms.