Measurement system of the Seebeck coefficient or of the electrical resistivity at high temperature

A high temperature Seebeck coefficient or electrical resistivity apparatus has been designed and fabricated to measure sample with typical size ~10 × 1 × 1 mm(3). It can measure both transport properties from 300 K to 1000 K in argon atmosphere. The sample lies transversely on top of two metallic half-cylinders, which contain heating cartridges and allow temperature and thermal gradient control and reversal. The temperature gradient is measured by two type N thermocouples pressed against the upper surface of the sample. The key feature of this apparatus is the disk-shaped junction of each type N thermocouple which strongly improves the thermal contact with the sample. The Seebeck coefficient is obtained by averaging over two measured values with opposite thermal gradient directions (~±2 K). For the resistivity measurements, the temperature is stabilized and the temperature gradient is actively reduced below 0.2 K to make negligible any spurious thermal voltage. Uncertainties of ~3% for the Seebeck coefficient and 1% for the resistivity were obtained on Ni samples. The Seebeck coefficient and resistivity have also been measured on a skutterudite sample as small as ~7 × 1.5 × 0.5 mm(3) with very good agreement with literature.