Importance of non-parabolic band effects in the thermoelectric properties of semiconductors

Xin Chen, David Parker, David J. Singh

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143 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present an analysis of the thermoelectric properties of of n-type GeTe and SnTe in relation to the lead chalcogenides PbTe and PbSe. We find that the singly degenerate conduction bands of semiconducting GeTe and SnTe are highly non-ellipsoidal, even very close to the band edges. This leads to isoenergy surfaces with a strongly corrugated shape that is clearly evident at carrier concentrations well below 0.005 e per formula unit (7-9 × 10 19 â€...cm -3 depending on material). Analysis within Boltzmann theory suggests that this corrugation may be favorable for the thermoelectric transport. Our calculations also indicate that values of the power factor for these two materials may well exceed those of PbTe and PbSe. As a result these materials may exhibit n-type performance exceeding that of the lead chalcogenides.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3168
JournalScientific Reports
Volume3
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 7 2013

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, through the S3TEC Energy Frontier Research Center.

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