Anomalous increase of the thermopower and thermoelectric figure of merit in Ga-doped <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-(Bi<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>Sb<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>)<Subscript>2</Subscript>Te<Subscript>3</Subscript> single crystals

The effect of Ga doping on the temperature dependences (5 K ≤ T ≤ 300 K) of the Seebeck coefficient α, electrical conductivity σ, thermal conductivity coefficient κ, and thermoelectric figure of merit Z of p-(Bi_0.5Sb_0.5)₂Te₃ single crystals has been investigated. It has been shown that, upon Ga doping, the hole concentration decreases, the Seebeck coefficient increases, the electrical conductivity decreases, and the thermoelectric figure of merit increases. The observed variations in the Seebeck coefficient cannot be completely explained by the decrease in the hole concentration and indicate a noticeable variation in the density of states due to the Ga doping.     

Anomalous enhancement of the thermoelectric power in gallium-doped p-(Bi1 ? xSbx)2Te3 single crystals

The effect of gallium on the temperature dependences (5 K ≤ T ≤ 300 K) of Seebeck coefficient α, electrical conductivity σ, thermal conductivity k, and thermoelectric efficiency Z of mixed p-(Bi_0.5Sb_0.5)₂Te₃ semiconductor single crystals is studied. The hole concentration decreases upon gallium doping; that is, gallium causes a donor effect. The Seebeck coefficient increases anomalously, i.e., much higher than it should be at the detected decrease in the hole concentration. This leads to an enhancement of the thermoelectric power. The observed changes in the Seebeck coefficient indicate a noticeable gallium-induced change in the density of states in the valence band.     

Electrical properties of simultaneously evaporated Sb-Te thin films

Thin films of Sb-Te of varying compositions have been deposited on glass substrates following the three temperature method. The dc conductivity (σ), Hall coefficient (R _H) and thermoelectric power (α) of annealed samples have been measured in the temperature range 300–470°K. Films exhibit metallic as well as semiconducting characteristics withp-type conductivity. The properties are found to be dependent on composition and thickness of the film. Paper presented at the Int. Conf. and Intensive Tutorial Course on Semiconductor Materials, New Delhi, India, December 8–16, 1988.     

Quasi-one dimensional electrical conductivity and thermoelectric power studies on a discotic liquid crystal

We have studied the electrical conductivity of well aligned samples of hexahexylthiotriphenylene (HHTT) in the pure as well as doped states. The dopant used was a small concentration (0.62 mole %) of the electron acceptor trinitrofluorenone (TNF). In the columnar phases, doping causes the AC(1 kHz) conductivity along the columnar axis (σ _‖) to increase by a factor of 10⁷ or more relative to that in undoped samples; σ _‖ attains a value of 10⁻²S/m, which was the maximum measurable limit of our experimental set up. On the other hand, in the isotropic phase doping makes hardly any difference to the conductivity. The frequency dependence of the conductivity has been investigated. The DC conductivity of doped samples exhibits an enormous anisotropy, σ _‖/σ _⊥ ≥ 10¹⁰, which is 7 orders higher than that reported for any liquid crystalline system, and, to our knowledge, the largest observed in an organic conductor. We also report the first thermoelectric power studies on these ‘molecular wires’. The sign of the thermoelectric power is in conformity with the expected nature of the charge carriers, namely, holes.     

On the possibility of developing thermoelectric sensors based on multielement higher manganese silicide film structures

The possibility of designing thermoelectric sensors based on multielement structures of higher manganese silicide (HMS) polycrystalline films is considered. Test structures with various configurations are developed for studying electrical and thermoelectric parameters of polycrystalline HMS films. The geometrical sizes of the elements of test structures are chosen to match the grain size in polycrystalline HMS films. The test structures are prepared using the planar silicon technology. In these structures, the current-voltage characteristics, Hall constant, charge carrier concentration, and mobility are measured. The thermopower (α) and electrical conductivity (σ) are studied in a temperature range of T = 77–600 K, where α > 250 μV/K and electrical conductivity σ ∼ 20 (Ω cm)⁻¹. It is shown that the sensitivity and thermopowers increase upon a decrease in the cross-sectional area of the elements.     

Thermoelectric figure-of-merit in <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-type bismuth- and antimony-chalcogenide-based solid solutions above room temperature

The specific features of the variation in the thermoelectric figure-of merit Z for p-type bismuth- and antimony-chalcogenide-based solid solutions p-(Bi,Sb)₂(Te,Se)₃ have been analyzed with allowance made for the data amassed in the investigation of thermoelectric and galvanomagnetic properties. It has been shown that, in the samples with optimum carrier concentrations, the increase in Z in the multicomponent p-Bi_{2 − x} Sb _x Te_{3 − y} Se _y composition (x = 1.3, y = 0.06) in the temperature range 300–370 K is mediated by the high carrier mobility and the low lattice thermal conductivity. The higher effective mass of the density of states and the larger slope of the temperature dependence of the mobility as compared to the other compositions bring about an increase in Z in the p-Bi_{2 − x} Sb _x Te₃ solid solution for x = 1.6 in the temperature range 370–550 K. The increase in the figure-of merit reached in the compositions under study stems also from the increasing contraction of constant-energy ellipsoids along the binary and bisector directions and from the change in the angle θ between the principal axes of the ellipsoids and the crystallographic axes.     

Dielectric spectra of LiTFSI-doped chitosan/PEO blends

Solid-polymer-blend electrolyte consisting of chitosan and polyethylene oxide (PEO) in a 1:1 weight ratio and doped with lithium trifluoromethanesulfonimide (LiTFSI) salt was prepared by solution cast technique. The highest conducting film with conductivity value of 1.40 × 10^-6 S cm⁻¹ at room temperature consists of 30 wt% LiTFSI. The temperature dependence for the highest conducting film obeyed Arrhenius relationship. From loss tangent–frequency plots at different temperatures, the frequency f _max at which the plot is a maximum was obtained. From this, ln f _max vs 10³/T was plotted. The activation energy value obtained from the log σ vs 10³/T plot and ln f _max vs 10³/T plot is about the same, suggesting that the processes of conductivity and relaxation for the charge carriers are the same. This paper was presented at the International Conference on Solid State Science and Technology 2006, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, Sept. 4–6, 2006.     

Electrical properties of nickel-doped arsenic trisulphide

Results of temperature and frequency dependent a.c. conductivity of pure and nickel-doped a-As₂S₃ are reported. The a.c. conductivity of pure As₂S₃ obeys a well-known relationship: σ_ac ∝ω ^s. Frequency exponents is found to decrease with increasing temperature. Correlated barrier hopping (CBH) model successfully explains the entire behaviour of a.c. conductivity with respect to temperature and frequency for pure As₂S₃. But a different behaviour of a.c. conductivity has been observed for the nickel doped As₂S₃. At higher temperatures, distinct peaks have been observed in the plots of temperature dependence of a.c. conductivity. The frequency dependent behaviour of a.c. conductivity (σ_ac ∝ω ^s) for nickeldoped As₂S₃ is similar to pure As₂S₃ at lower temperatures. But at higher temperatures, ln σ_ac vs lnf curves have been found to deviate from linearity. Such a behaviour has been explained by assuming that nickel doping gives rise to some neutral defect states (D ^0′) in the band gap. Single polaron hopping is expected to occur between theseD ^0‘ andD ⁺ states. Furthermore, allD ⁺,D ^0′ pairs are assumed to be equivalent, having a fixed relaxation time at a given temperature. The contribution of this relaxation to a.c. conductivity is found to be responsible for the observed peak in the plots of temperature dependence of a.c. conductivity for nickel-doped As₂S₃. The entire behaviour of a.c. conductivity with respect to temperature and frequency has been explained by using CBH and “simple pair” models. Theoretical results obtained by using these models, have been found to be in agreement with the experimental results.     

Dielectric properties of single-crystal deuterated triglycine sulfate (DTGS) in ultra-weak low-and infra-low-frequency electric fields

The complex permittivity ɛ* is studied with separate readings for ɛ′ and ɛ″ at low and infralow frequencies and ultraweak fields. The effective conductivity λ is determined. An Arrhenius dependence is observed for ln ɛ′(1/T), ln ɛ″(1/T), and ln λ(1/T), both in the paraphase and in the polar phase. It is proposed that the conductivity of crystalline DTGS in the paraphase is an ion jump conductivity. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 41, 1073–1075 (June 1999)     

Thermal conductivity of crystalline fullerite C60 in the simple cubic phase

The behavior of the thermal conductivity k(T) of bulk faceted fullerite C₆₀ crystals is investigated at temperatures T=8–220 K. The samples are prepared by the gas-transport method from pure C₆₀, containing less than 0.01% impurities. It is found that as the temperature decreases, the thermal conductivity of the crystal increases, reaches a maximum at T=15–20 K, and drops by a factor of ∼2, proportional to the change in the specific heat, on cooling to 8 K. The effective phonon mean free path λ _p, estimated from the thermal conductivity and known from the published values of the specific heat of fullerite, is comparable to the lattice constant of the crystal λ _p∼d=1.4 nm at temperatures T>200 K and reaches values λ_p∼50d at T<15 K, i.e., the maximum phonon ranges are limited by scattering on defects in the volume of the sample in the simple cubic phase. In the range T=25−75 K the observed temperature dependence k(T) can be described by the expression k(T)∼exp(Θ/bT), characteristic for the behavior of the thermal conductivity of perfect nonconducting crystals at temperatures below the Debye temperature Θ (Θ=80 K in fullerite), where umklapp phonon-phonon scattering processes predominate in the volume of the sample. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 8, 651–656 (25 April 1997)     

X-ray diffraction line profile from the aggregate of distorted crystallites. II

An expression for the fourth moment of the line profile in terms of several strain derivatives and the possibility of measuring the ‘wavelength’ of crystal distortions (λ) for any sinusoidally varying component of the strain are available. The experimental means for evaluating such strain derivatives in the expression for the fourth moment was earlier described. A numerical method for evaluating this wavelength and its subsequent use to determineλ in several samples ofα-brass is presented here. The data used are taken from the earlier paper of the authors. An attempt has been made to interpret the values ofλ and their changes with cold working and annealing in terms of lattice strain.     

Electrical transport properties of CuWO4

The temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity, thermoelectric power and dielectric constant of the antiferromagnetic CuWO₄ have been studied in the temperature range 300–1000 K. The conductivity results can be summarised by the equations σ_I=6.31 × 10⁻³ exp (−0.29 eV/kT) ohm⁻¹ cm⁻¹ in the temperature range 300–600 K and σ_II=3.16 × 10⁵ exp (−1.48 eV/kT) ohm⁻¹ cm⁻¹ between 600 K and 1000 K. The thermoelectric power can be expressed byθ=[− 1.25 (10³/T) + 3.9] mV/K. Initially dielectric constant increases slowly but for high temperatures its increase is fast.     

Temperature dependences of thermal expansion and exchange magnetostriction of holmium and dysprosium single crystals

Information on the character of the temperature relationships of linear expansion coefficients (α_a, α_c) and exchange magnetostrictions (λ_a, λ_a) of single crystal Ho and Dy, based on temperature dependence of thec- anda-axis lattice constants, were accurately determined by X-ray diffraction from 4,2 to 300 K. In the helical phases we observed a large anisotropy of expansion coefficients (α_a>0, α_c<0) and their variations at 24,5, 45 and 96 in Ho and 156 K in Dy. These anomalies were caused by the commensurate transitions. The Curie transition in Ho is found to be of the 1-st order.     

Thermal Conductivity of the Toda Lattice with Conservative Noise

We study the thermal conductivity of the one dimensional Toda lattice perturbed by a stochastic dynamics preserving energy and momentum. The strength of the stochastic noise is controlled by a parameter γ. We show that heat transport is anomalous, and that the thermal conductivity diverges with the length n of the chain according to κ(n)∼n ^α , with 0<α≤1/2. In particular, the ballistic heat conduction of the unperturbed Toda chain is destroyed. Besides, the exponent α of the divergence depends on γ.     

Pre-exponential factor of the hopping conductivity in disordered carbon films

The conductivity of carbon films grown by polymethylphenylsiloxane vapor decomposition in stimulated dc discharge plasma was studied. It is found that the Mott hopping conductivity $ \sigma \left( T \right) = \sigma _0 \left( T \right)\exp \left\{ { - \frac{{T_0 }} {T}^{{1 \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {1 4}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} 4}} } \right\} $ \sigma \left( T \right) = \sigma _0 \left( T \right)\exp \left\{ { - \frac{{T_0 }} {T}^{{1 \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {1 4}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} 4}} } \right\} is characteristic of the samples under study in the temperature range of 80–400 K in the electric field E to 5 · 10⁴ V/cm. An analysis of the pre-exponential factor σ ₀(T) = σ ₀₀(T ₀)T ^α allowed the conclusion that the hopping transport is most adequately described in the model with the exponential energy dependence of the density of localized states for which α = −1/2 and the universal relation ln σ ₀₀ −T ₀^1/4 0 is valid, which is satisfied in the range where the parameter σ ₀₀ varies by eight orders of magnitude.     

Transport and dielectric properties of thin polycrystalline CoO films

Transport and dielectric properties of polycrystalline CoO films were studied as functions of the applied field, frequency and temperature. TheI–V plots showed that the Poole-Frenkel field emission mechanism is responsible for conduction at fields>10⁵ V/cm. The ac conductivity σ(ω), the imaginary part of the dielectric constantε ₂, and tan δ plots as functions of frequency revealed three dispersion regions. The σ(ω) andε ₂ frequency dependence indicates a non-adiabatic hopping of charge carriers at low frequencies and adiabatic hopping at high frequencies. The activation energy of a dielectric oscillator is 0.15 eV. Work supported by the Office of Naval Research.     

Effective mass and mobility of carriers in p-Bi2?xSbxTe3?ySey solid solutions at temperatures below 300 K

The temperature dependences of the Seebeck coefficient α and of the electrical conductivity σ of p-Bi_2−x Sb_xTe_3−y Se_y solid solutions were studied under atomic substitution on the cation (1 ≤ x ≤ 1.5) and anion (0.04 ≤ y ≤ 0.09) bismuth and antimony telluride sublattices within the temperature interval 80–340 K. The effect of variation in the solid-solution composition on the average effective density-of-states mass (m/m ₀) and carrier mobility (μ₀, calculated with due account of degeneracy) was studied under the assumption that carrier scattering is isotropic and that the relaxation time can be approximated by a power-law function , where r _eff is an effective scattering parameter. It is shown that variations in the pattern of the m/m ₀ and μ₀ temperature dependences produced in the temperature region under study by properly varying the number of substituted atoms in the solid solutions may favor an increase in thermoelectric efficiency. __________ Translated from Fizika Tverdogo Tela, Vol. 47, No. 2, 2005, pp. 224–228. Original Russian Text Copyright ? 2005 by Luk’yanova, Kutasov, Konstantinov.     

Influence of Ir substitution on the thermoelectric properties of Ba0.3(IrxCo1-x)4Sb12 solid solutions

Polycrystalline skutterudite solid solutions, Ba_0.3 (Ir_xCo_1-x)₄Sb₁₂ (x from 0 to 0.11), have been synthesized by a two-step solid state reaction method and sintered by a spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The influence of Ir substitution on electrical and thermal transport properties has been investigated in the temperature range of 300–850 K. Through Ir substitution, the lattice thermal conductivity was depressed due to the phonon scattering by point defects. The thermopower and thermoelectric power factor increased because of the enhancement of carrier acoustic lattice scattering especially at lower temperatures. Both the dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) and the thermoelectric compatibility factor (C_F), which play very important roles for applications, were improved over the whole temperature region. PACS 72.15.Eb; 72.15.Jf; 72.20.Pa; 63.20.Mt; 74.25.Fy An erratum to this article can be found at     

Thermal conductivity of the diamond-paraffin wax composite

The thermal conductivity of diamond-paraffin wax composites prepared by infiltration of a hydrocarbon binder with the thermal conductivity λ _m = 0.2 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ into a dense bed of diamond particles (λ _f ∼ 1500 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹) with sizes of 400 and 180 μm has been investigated. The calculations using universally accepted models considering isolated inclusions in a matrix have demonstrated that the best agreement with the measured values of the thermal conductivity of the composite λ = 10–12 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ is achieved with the use of the differential effective medium model, the Maxwell mean field scheme gives a very underestimated calculated value of λ, and the effective medium theory leads to a very overestimated value. An agreement between the calculation and the experiment can be provided by constructing thermal conductivity functions. The calculation of the thermal conductivity at the percolation threshold has shown that the experimental thermal conductivity of the composites is higher than this critical value. It has been established that, for the composites with closely packed diamond particles (the volume fraction is ∼0.63 for a monodisperse binder), the use of the isolated particle model (Hasselman-Johnson and differential effective medium models) for calculating the thermal conductivity is not quite correct, because the model does not take into account the percolation component of the thermal conductivity. In particular, this holds true for the calculation of the heat conductance of diamond-matrix interfaces in diamond-metal composites with a high thermal conductivity.     

Thermoelectric properties of Ag2Se

To obtain information on the temperature and concentration dependence of thermoelectric quality factor Z and to clarify the nature of scattering in Ag₂Se a study was made of electrical conductivity , thermo-emf , and thermal conductivity in silver selenide over the temperature range T=80–450°K at concentration levels of 2–43·10²⁴ m^–3. It is shown that in Ag₂Se the Lorentz number L, determined experimentally from the electronic fraction of the thermal conductivity, is less than the Sommerfeld number L_o. Calculation of L/L_o(n) performed with a theory considering inelastic scattering of carriers, shows that the inelasticity is produced by electron interaction. Comparison of experimental data on the temperature dependence of lattice thermal conductivity with theory permits the conclusion that in Ag₂Se in range 80–300°K the basic role in phonon scattering is played by three-phonon Umklapp processes. It is shown that with increase in T and decrease in n the thermoelectric quality factor of silver selenide increases. The highest value of Z was achieved in a specimen with electron concentration n=2·10²⁴ m^–3 at T=320°K. The rapid decrease in Z upon phase transition is related to discontinuous decrease in and at this point.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 10, pp. 27–31, October, 1981.