Anomalous Thermoelectric Power as Evidence for Two-Valence Bands in SnTe

Brebrick, R. F.; Strauss, A. J.

doi:10.1103/physrev.131.104

Cited by 231 publications

(245 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…No bipolar effect is evident, even up to 873 K, in all the compositions despite the small band gap ∼0.18 eV for SnTe (29,31). All the measured Seebeck coefficients are positive, consistent with the density of states (DOS) calculation presented in (27). The carrier concentration obtained in this work is ∼2.35 × 10 20 cm −3 (filled circle).…”

Section: G Ood Thermoelectric (Te) Materials Should Not Only Have Highsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…The carrier concentration obtained in this work is ∼2.35 × 10 20 cm −3 (filled circle). Unlike PbTe and PbSe (7,9,36,39,40), the Seebeck coefficient of SnTe shows abnormal variation with increasing carrier concentration, which was qualitatively explained previously by two parabolic band models (27) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations (31). The valence band model (VBM), which takes into account the nonparabolicity of the light-hole band (solid line), provides a quantitative fit to all the Seebeck coefficient data, except for those of In-doped samples, and thus is expected to best depict the contribution from the intrinsic band structure of SnTe (29).…”

Section: G Ood Thermoelectric (Te) Materials Should Not Only Have Highmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…Tin telluride (SnTe), a lead-free IV-VI narrow band-gap semiconductor has not been considered favorably as a good thermoelectric material because of its low ZT due to the relatively low Seebeck coefficient and high electronic thermal conductivity caused by intrinsic Sn vacancies (11)(12)(13), although SnTe has been used to alloy with other tellurides for better TE properties (14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26). Even though there has been no real success in achieving good TE properties of lead-free SnTe, the similarity between the electronic band structure of SnTe and that of PbTe and PbSe (27)(28)(29)(30)(31) suggests it has the potential to be a good TE material, especially given the two valence bands (light-hole and heavy-hole bands) that contribute to the hole density of states. The main difficulty here, however, is the fact that the separation between the light-hole and heavy-hole band edges in SnTe is estimated to be in the range of ∼0.3 to ∼0.4 eV (27,29), larger than those of PbTe or PbSe (9), rendering the benefit of the heavier mass for the Seebeck coefficient less significant.…”

Section: G Ood Thermoelectric (Te) Materials Should Not Only Have Highmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though there has been no real success in achieving good TE properties of lead-free SnTe, the similarity between the electronic band structure of SnTe and that of PbTe and PbSe (27)(28)(29)(30)(31) suggests it has the potential to be a good TE material, especially given the two valence bands (light-hole and heavy-hole bands) that contribute to the hole density of states. The main difficulty here, however, is the fact that the separation between the light-hole and heavy-hole band edges in SnTe is estimated to be in the range of ∼0.3 to ∼0.4 eV (27,29), larger than those of PbTe or PbSe (9), rendering the benefit of the heavier mass for the Seebeck coefficient less significant.…”

Section: G Ood Thermoelectric (Te) Materials Should Not Only Have Highmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High thermoelectric performance by resonant dopant indium in nanostructured SnTe

Zhang

Liao

Lan

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

648

765

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From an environmental perspective, lead-free SnTe would be preferable for solid-state waste heat recovery if its thermoelectric figure-of-merit could be brought close to that of the leadcontaining chalcogenides. In this work, we studied the thermoelectric properties of nanostructured SnTe with different dopants, and found indium-doped SnTe showed extraordinarily large Seebeck coefficients that cannot be explained properly by the conventional two-valence band model. We attributed this enhancement of Seebeck coefficients to resonant levels created by the indium impurities inside the valence band, supported by the firstprinciples simulations. This, together with the lower thermal conductivity resulting from the decreased grain size by ball milling and hot pressing, improved both the peak and average nondimensional figure-of-merit (ZT) significantly. A peak ZT of ∼1.1 was obtained in 0.25 atom % In-doped SnTe at about 873 K.

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Section: G Ood Thermoelectric (Te) Materials Should Not Only Have Highsupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: G Ood Thermoelectric (Te) Materials Should Not Only Have Highmentioning

confidence: 69%

Section: G Ood Thermoelectric (Te) Materials Should Not Only Have Highmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: G Ood Thermoelectric (Te) Materials Should Not Only Have Highmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

High thermoelectric performance by resonant dopant indium in nanostructured SnTe

Zhang

Liao

Lan

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

648

765

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…PbTe [28][29][30] and SnTe [31][32][33][34] both have a higher-energy L and a lower-energy Σ valence band. In pristine materials with optimized carrier concentrations, the lower-energy offset between these two bands in PbTe (0.17 eV 29,30,35 at 300 K) compared with that in SnTe (0.3-0.4 eV 32,34 at 300 K) leads to a much higher-power factor (30 μW cm − 1 K − 2 36 ) for PbTe than that for SnTe (20 μW cm − 1 K − 2 37 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electronic origin of the high thermoelectric performance of GeTe among the p-type group IV monotellurides

et al. 2017

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PbTe and SnTe in their p-type forms have long been considered high-performance thermoelectrics, and both of them largely rely on two valence bands (the first band at L point and the second one along the Σ line) participating in the transport properties. This work focuses on the thermoelectric transport properties inherent to p-type GeTe, a member of the group IV monotellurides that is relatively less studied. Approximately 50 GeTe samples have been synthesized with different carrier concentrations spanning from 1 to 20 × 10 20 cm − 3 , enabling an insightful understanding of the electronic transport and a full carrier concentration optimization for the thermoelectric performance. When all of these three monotellurides (PbTe, SnTe and GeTe) are fully optimized in their p-type forms, GeTe shows the highest thermoelectric figure of merit (zT up to 1.8). This is due to its superior electronic performance, originating from the highly degenerated Σ band at the band edge in the low-temperature rhombohedral phase and the smallest effective masses for both the L and Σ bands in the high-temperature cubic phase. The high thermoelectric performance of GeTe that is induced by its unique electronic structure not only provides a reference substance for understanding existing research on GeTe but also opens new possibilities for the further improvement of the thermoelectric performance of this material.

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Eco‐Friendly SnTe Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Future Challenges

Moshwan

Yang

Zou

et al. 2017

Adv Funct Materials

321

260

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As a key type of emerging thermoelectric material, tin telluride (SnTe) has received extensive attention because of its low toxicity and eco-friendly nature. The recent trend shows that band engineering and nanostructuring can enhance thermoelectric performance of SnTe as intermediate temperature (400-800 K) thermoelectrics, which provides an alternative for toxic PbTe with the same operational temperature. This review highlights the key strategies to enhance the thermoelectric performance of SnTe materials through band engineering, carrier concentration optimization, synergistic engineering, and structure design. A fundamental analysis elucidates the underpinnings for the property improvement. This comprehensive review will boost the relevant research with a view to work on further performance enhancement of SnTe materials.where k B , e, h, m*, µ, and L are the Boltzmann constant, the carrier charge, the Planck's constant, the effective mass of the charge carrier, the carrier mobility, and the Lorenz number, respectively. As can be seen, S, σ, and κ e are interacted and conflict, which raises the difficulty to obtain high ZT. To solve these conflicts, extensive research has been carried out through band engineering to optimize S and σ, [5][6][7] and structuring to reduce the κ l . [8][9][10][11][12] Figure 1a summarizes recent significant achievements in different thermoelectric materials including SnSe, [25] 3%Na-(PbTe) 0.8 (PbS) 0.2 , [70] Cu 2 S 0.5 Te 0.5 , [71] and GeSbTe. [72] As can be seen, the current ZT values of the thermoelectric materials lie between 1 and 2, [7,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] resulting in the fact that the current thermoelectric energy conversion efficiency is comparable to the other energy conversion technologies, such as photovoltaic cells, [22] and solar thermal plants. [22] Considerable research has been continuing to further drive ZT higher than 2 with the predicted efficiency over 20%, [24,25] which can attract highly exciting prospect in the energy generation and conservation fields.In terms of the industrial and automotive applications, waste heats are generally produced in the temperature range of 500-900 K. [26][27][28] To recover such waste heats, developing high-performance mid-temperature (400-900 K) thermoelectric materials is highly desired. For this purpose, lead telluride (PbTe) and its alloys have been considered as a primary material system. [7,10,14,17,29] However, the toxicity associated with Pb causes severe threat to the environment and needs to be alternated for domestic usage. [30] Hence, as its analog, tin telluride (SnTe) [21,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] with the rock-salt crystal structure has been inspired with great interests. [32] Especially, SnTe is nontoxic, earth-abundant, and environment friendly, [45] which makes it

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Anomalous Thermoelectric Power as Evidence for Two-Valence Bands in SnTe

Cited by 231 publications

References 6 publications

High thermoelectric performance by resonant dopant indium in nanostructured SnTe

High thermoelectric performance by resonant dopant indium in nanostructured SnTe

Electronic origin of the high thermoelectric performance of GeTe among the p-type group IV monotellurides

Eco‐Friendly SnTe Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Future Challenges

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