Phase formation and phase transformations in Bi-Te films with nanoscale thickness

Tailoring bismuth telluride nanostructures using a scalable sintering process and their thermoelectric properties

“…This enhanced electron transport in comparison to the samples sintered at low temperature, and thus drastic enhancement of the electrical conductivity was observed. Moreover, the BiTe phase, which has high electrical conductivity, 21 dominated in the sample sintered at 773 K, as evidenced from the EDS and XRD analyses. Due to the high electrical conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient was slightly decreased, possibly due to high electron-electron and electron-phonon scattering.…”

“…19,20 The tellurium deficiency is probably caused by evaporation, as tellurium is lighter and more volatile than Bi. 21,22 Fig. 5a-d show the TEM and HRTEM images of the as-prepared sample and the samples sintered at 673 K. As shown in Fig.…”