Comparison of solid-state thermionic refrigeration with thermoelectric refrigeration

A theoretical analysis of single-barrier thermionic emission cooling in sem iconducting materials is performed using Fermi-Dirac statistics. Both maxim um cooling and coefficient of performance are evaluated. It is shown that t he performance of a thermionic refrigerator is governed by the same materia ls factor as thermoelectric devices. For all known materials, single-barrie r thermionic refrigeration is less effective and less efficient than thermo electric refrigeration. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.