One direct conversion process makes use of the thermoelectric effect associated with heating the junction of two different conducting materials such as metals or semiconductors.
He discovered that if a copper strip was joined to a strip of bismuth to form a closed circuit, heating one junction induced a current of electricity to flow around the circuit as long as the difference in temperature existed.
By putting bismuth and antimony in an alternating manner to form a rectangle (See picture above) and heating one junction, Seebeck was able to deflect a compass placed in the middle of the rectangle, which means a current flowing through the loop.
Seebeck observed that a compass needle near a circuit made of different conducting materials was deflected when one of the junctions was heated.
However, the IR responses are significantly different when the junctions are heated by the radiation-induced antenna current.
We find that the thermoelectric behaviors of the two different NTC designs are identical when one of the junctions is selectively heated by a nanoscale heater to produce an open-circuit voltage.
Both simulations and experiments demonstrate that the tapered junction is more efficiently heated by the antenna, which results in nearly twice as large IR response compared with detectors having abrupt junctions.
Heat sink at the thermocouple junction due to heat conduction from neighboring wires to the junction is observed via numerical calculation, which can compensate the temperature rise lag of the junction caused by the radiation heat loss and the increase of specific heat capacity.
It all reached a bit of a head last week, when we managed to have a heated dispute about whether it was raining which lasted three junctions of the M4.
The inhabitants of the Bicester "eco-town" can be heated by their combined heat and power plant before driving to the new motorway junction to commute to Oxford.
