Thermoelectric properties of HPHT sintered In-doped Pb0.5Sn0.5Te

The thermoelectric properties of Pb_0.5Sn_0.5Te doped with In at 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0×10¹⁹/cm³ and sintered at a high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) of 4.0 GPa and 800 or 900 °C, respectively, have been studied. All samples show p-type semiconducting behavior with positive thermopower. We find that HPHT sintering of conventionally synthesized materials improves their thermoelectric properties. The highest power factor is obtained for In doping of 2.0×10¹⁹/cm³ with 13.5 μW/cm K² at 230 °C. The corresponding figure of merit is 1.43×10⁻³/K. This represents a twofold improvement in thermoelectric figure of merit, compared to the conventionally sintered materials reported in the literature. When exposed to 400 °C for 10 days, samples sintered at 900 °C exhibit more stable thermoelectric properties, while the properties of those sintered at 800 °C deteriorated. These results demonstrate that HPHT sintering is a viable and controllable way of tuning the thermoelectric properties of PbTe-based materials.     

PbTe(001)表面原子几何结构和电子结构的第一性原理计算

用第一性原理的密度泛函理论计算了PbTe（001）表面的几何结构和电子结构.计算结果表明：PbTe（001）表面不发生重构，但表面几层原子表现出明显的振荡弛豫现象，其中第一、第二层间距减小4.5%，第二、第三层间距增加2.0%，并且表面层原子出现褶皱.表面带隙在X 点，带隙变宽，在基本带隙中不引入新的表面态，而导带底和价带顶附近等多处出现新的表 面共振态；弛豫后费米面处态密度很低，所以表面结构很稳定. 关键词： 密度泛函理论 表面几何结构 表面电子结构 PbTe     

Phase transitions in PbTe under quasi-hydrostatic pressure up to 50 GPa

PbTe has been investigated using synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) in a diamond anvil cell under quasi-hydrostatic pressures up to 50 GPa. Upon compression to 6.6 GPa, the initial NaCl phase transforms to an intermediate phase, which is confirmed to be an orthorhombic structure with a space group Pnma. At 18.4 GPa, the intermediate Pnma phase undergoes a phase transition to the CsCl structure. The systemic analysis of the crystal structures between the NaCl and intermediate phases indicates that the structure of the Pnma phase could be derived from the distortion of the NaCl structure. The bulk modulus of the CsCl phase is B₀=52(2) GPa with V₀=60.8(4) ų and B′₀=4.0 (fixed), slightly larger than the NaCl phase (B₀=44(1) GPa) and the intermediate phase (B₀=49(3) GPa).     

PbTe的高温高压合成

 以高温高压为手段，在4～5GPa压力和700～1 200 K温度条件下，成功地合成出了PbTe。对合成样品进行了X射线测试分析，结果表明，合成的PbTe样品是具有NaCl结构的多晶，而PbTe的取向随着合成压力的升高发生变化。扫描电镜分析结果显示：高压合成的PbTe样品，其晶粒有了明显的取向；电阻率比常压样品低1～2个数量级，并随合成压力的升高而降低；热导率也同时低于常压合成的PbTe样品。以上结果说明，高压合成方法是改善材料性能的重要手段。     

The 60° or 180° twinned Bi-doped PbTe film studied by EBSD

The Bi-doped PbTe film was grown on Si(1 1 1) substrate by using hot wall epitaxy (HWE) technique. The film was characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy, micro-area X-ray diffraction and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The results indicate that the film is dominated by 〈1 1 1〉 orientation. The film consists of two twinned domains, rotated 60° or 180° around the normal to the film surface. It is speculated that the twinned PbTe film results from the deviated triangular grains. The ratio between the grains with two different orientations will decrease with the increase of the film thickness.     

Transport properties of undoped and Br-doped PbTe sintered at high-temperature and pressure ≥4.0 GPa

The thermoelectric properties of nominally undoped PbTe and Br doped PbTe materials sintered at high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) have been studied. All samples show n-type semiconducting behavior with negative thermopower. For undoped PbTe, four different HPHT treatments were performed at pressures between 4.0 and 6.5 GPa. PbTe doped with Br at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0×10¹⁹ cm⁻³ was HPHT treated at 4.0 GPa and 1045 °C. As the dopant concentration increases, the absolute thermopower decreases, thermal conductivity increases, and electrical resistivity decreases. At a nominal dopant concentration of 1.0×10¹⁹ cm⁻³, carrier mobility of 1165 cm²/V s and dimensionless thermoelectric figure-of-merit, ZT, of around 0.27 at 300 K were obtained. These results demonstrate that HPHT post-processing is a viable and controllable way of tuning the thermoelectric properties of PbTe-based materials.     

PbTe纳米晶高压热电性能的研究

 利用自建的400 t四柱双缸液压机,研究了PbTe纳米晶在0~0.8 GPa压力范围内热电性能随压力的变化。实验结果表明：PbTe纳米晶电导率随压力的增加而增加,而热电动势随压力的增加而减小,两者随压力的变化具有可逆性;PbTe纳米晶具有极高的热电动势,在常压下达到565 μV/K,在0.8 GPa压力下,材料的电导率为常压下的4倍,热电动势仅降低20%,功率因子则达到常压下的3倍。研究表明,高压能显著提高PbTe纳米晶的热电性能。利用第一性原理计算了0.4~4.0 GPa压力范围内材料的简约费米能级,计算结果与实验结果相吻合。     

Coherent convergent beam electron diffraction for analysis of lattice fitting in PbTe/MgO bi-crystals

Coherent convergent beam electron diffraction is for the first time applied to the analysis of lattice fitting between vacuum-deposited PbTe and MgO thin crystals in the plan-view mode. The possibility of determination of the rigid-body shift is discussed on the basis of simulated diffraction patterns from the bi-crystals as well as the preliminary experimental results obtained by a 200 kV transmission electron microscope with a field emission electron gun. In the analysis, the importance of the position of interference fringes at overlaps of PbTe 200 and MgO 200 diffraction disks and that of the corresponding mirror symmetry in the whole pattern are emphasized in order to determine the rigid-body shift and the probe-position.     

Quantum nanostructures of paraelectric PbTe

This article provides a review of our results on nanostructurization of lead telluride, PbTe. This IV–VI group narrow-gap semiconductor exhibits paraelectric behaviour leading to a huge dielectric constant ε>1000 at helium temperatures. Because the Coulomb potential fluctuations produced by charged defects are strongly suppressed in PbTe nanostructures, one can reach the quantum ballistic regime at significantly relaxed conditions in comparison with other systems. In particular, we observe precise zero-field conductance quantization in the wires made of modulation doped PbTe/PbEuTe quantum wells where the heavily doped layer is separated from the conducting channel only by a 2 nm thick spacer layer. The second important property is the very large Zeeman splitting. It reaches 4 meV/T. Accordingly, significant spin splitting of the conductance plateaux is observed already at fields below 1 T. Therefore, the system is attractive for the construction of local spin filters. We show that the presence of metal layers does not impair the quantum ballistic properties. Furthermore, we have developed a new method of tuning the PbTe nanostructures, using laterally placed metallic electrodes. We have found that this method is more effective than previous schemes using used p–n junctions and it provides better stability of the nanostructures.