Thermal conductivity of a number of solid solutions of gadolinium and dysprosium sulfides has been studied experimentally within the temperature range 80−400 K. The work offers the data on thermal conductivity coefficient and lattice thermal conductivity of the studied samples. It was found that replacement of gadolinium ions by dysprosium ions leads to significant decrease of the samples' thermal conductivity and changes its temperature dependence character due to the resonance scattering of phonons by paramagnetic ions of dysprosium. Influence of this mechanism of phonon scattering conditions the area of anomalous change observed on the concentration dependence of thermal conductivity coefficient.Key words: thermal conductivity, sulfides of gadolinium and dysprosium.Interest in investigation of sulfides of rare-earth elements with the structure of thorium phosphide is bound with possible application of these compounds as working elements of thermoelectric energy converters that is conditioned by high melting temperature, possible self-doping at continuous change of the composition and low thermal conductivity [1]. Thermal conductivity coefficient κ is one of important characteristics necessary for evaluation of prospective technical application of thermoelectric material. Studies of thermal conductivity and thermoelectric properties of solid solutions on the basis of gadolinium sulfide GdS x (1.469 ≤ x ≤ 1.50) have shown that these compounds are characterized by low values of thermal conductivity coefficient [2−4], and among them there are compositions with high values of thermoelectric efficiency [5,6]. To increase thermoelectric efficiency of material it is usual to decrease its thermal conductivity creating there additional centers of phonon scattering. Such centers for the system GdS x may be presented by the doping paramagnetic ions of rare-earth elements scattering phonons and decreasing thermal conductivity but not modifying electrical characteristics of the compound. In the work [7], it was shown that paramagnetic ions of dysprosium appear to be efficient centers of phonon scattering.
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