The Thermoelectric Properties of n-Type Bismuth Telluride: Bismuth Selenide Alloys Bi2Te3−xSex

Alloying bismuth telluride with antimony telluride and bismuth selenide for p- and n-type materials, respectively, improves the thermoelectric quality factor for use in room temperature modules. As the electronic and thermal transports can vary substantially, the alloy composition is a key engineering parameter. The n-type Bi2Te3-xSex alloy lags its p-type counterpart in thermoelectric performance and does not lend itself as readily to simple transport modeling which complicates engineering. Combining literature data with recent results across the entire alloy composition range, the complex electronic structure dynamics and trends in lattice thermal conductivity are explored. Spin-orbit interaction plays a critical role in determining the position and degeneracy of the various conduction band minima. This behavior is incorporated into a two-band effective mass model to estimate the transport parameters in each band. An alloy scattering model is utilized to demonstrate how phonon scattering behaves differently on either side of the intermediate ordered compound Bi2Te2Se due to chalcogen site occupancy preference. The parametrization of the electronic and thermal transports presented can be used in future optimization efforts.

Observation of valence band crossing: the thermoelectric properties of CaZn2Sb2–CaMg2Sb2 solid solution

Using an effective mass model, the changing valence band character of CaZn2Sb2–CaMg2Sb2 solid solution was probed along with the thermoelectric properties.

Growth and characterization of R(O,F)BiS2 (R = La, Ce, Pr, Nd) superconducting single crystals

R(O,F)BiS2 (R: La, Ce, Pr, Nd) superconducting single crystals with different F concentrations are grown using a CsCl/KCl flux. The obtained 1-2 mm-sized single crystals have a plate-like shape and are cleavable along the ab-plane. The crystal structure is tetragonal of space group P4/nmm (#129). The as-grown single crystals exhibit superconductivity at around 3–5 K. The superconducting transition temperature increases with decreasing the ionic radius of the R element. The superconducting anisotropies of the R(O,F)BiS2 single crystals are estimated to be 30–60 according to the effective mass model, whereas the anisotropies for Ce(O,F)BiS2 single crystals are 13–21. The c-axis transport measurements of a single crystal of Pr(O,F)BiS2 under a magnetic field parallel to the ab-plane reveal a “lock-in” state attributed to the Josephson vortex flow. Furthermore, the Ce(O,F)BiS2 single crystals exhibit a magnetic order at the temperature range of 5–7 K that apparently coexist with superconductivity below approximately 3 K.