Structure-transformation-induced abnormal thermoelectric properties in semiconductor copper selenide

Huili Liu; Xun Shi; Melanie Kirkham; Hsin Wang; Qiang Li; Ctirad Uher; Wenqing Zhang; Lidong Chen

doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2012.11.058

Structure-transformation-induced abnormal thermoelectric properties in semiconductor copper selenide

Huili Liu, Xun Shi, Melanie Kirkham, Hsin Wang, Qiang Li, Ctirad Uher, Wenqing Zhang, Lidong Chen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

81 Scopus citations

Abstract

Thermoelectric effects and related technologies have attracted a great interest due to world-wide energy harvesting. Thermoelectricity has usually been considered in the context of stable material phases. Here we report that the fluctuation of structures during the second-order phase transition in Cu ₂Se semiconductor breaks the conventional trends of thermoelectric transports in normal phases, leading to a critically phase-transition-enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit zT above unity at 400 K, a three times larger value than for the normal phases. Dynamic structural transformations introduce intensive fluctuations and extreme complexity, which enhance carrier entropy and thus the thermopower, and strongly scatter carriers and phonons as well to make their transports behave critically.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	121-124
Number of pages	4
Journal	Materials Letters
Volume	93
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2012.11.058
State	Published - 2013

Funding

We thank G. Jeffrey Snyder for helpful discussion. This work is in part supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973-program) under Project No. 2013CB632501 ), NSFC Grants ( 51121064 , 11234012 , 51222209 , and 50825205 ) and CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams. H.W. and M.J.K are supported by IEA under the Implementing Agreement of AMT via DOE Office EERE Vehicle Technology Program. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle LLC under DOE contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725 . Q.L. acknowledges support from the US DOE under Contract no. DEAC0298CH10886 . C.U. wishes to acknowledge the support of the Center for Solar and Thermal Energy Conversion Research Center funded by the U.S. DOE under Award no. DE-SC00000957 .

Funders	Funder number
CAS/SAFEA
Center for Solar and Thermal Energy Conversion Research Center
U.S. DOE
UT-Battelle LLC
U.S. Department of Energy	DE-AC05-00OR22725
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
National Natural Science Foundation of China	50825205, 11234012, 51121064, 51222209
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement
National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program)	2013CB632501

Keywords

Phase transition
Semiconductor
Structure fluctuation
Thermoelectric

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10.1016/j.matlet.2012.11.058

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title = "Structure-transformation-induced abnormal thermoelectric properties in semiconductor copper selenide",

abstract = "Thermoelectric effects and related technologies have attracted a great interest due to world-wide energy harvesting. Thermoelectricity has usually been considered in the context of stable material phases. Here we report that the fluctuation of structures during the second-order phase transition in Cu 2Se semiconductor breaks the conventional trends of thermoelectric transports in normal phases, leading to a critically phase-transition-enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit zT above unity at 400 K, a three times larger value than for the normal phases. Dynamic structural transformations introduce intensive fluctuations and extreme complexity, which enhance carrier entropy and thus the thermopower, and strongly scatter carriers and phonons as well to make their transports behave critically.",

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author = "Huili Liu and Xun Shi and Melanie Kirkham and Hsin Wang and Qiang Li and Ctirad Uher and Wenqing Zhang and Lidong Chen",

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AU - Liu, Huili

AU - Shi, Xun

AU - Kirkham, Melanie

AU - Wang, Hsin

AU - Li, Qiang

AU - Uher, Ctirad

AU - Zhang, Wenqing

AU - Chen, Lidong

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Thermoelectric effects and related technologies have attracted a great interest due to world-wide energy harvesting. Thermoelectricity has usually been considered in the context of stable material phases. Here we report that the fluctuation of structures during the second-order phase transition in Cu 2Se semiconductor breaks the conventional trends of thermoelectric transports in normal phases, leading to a critically phase-transition-enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit zT above unity at 400 K, a three times larger value than for the normal phases. Dynamic structural transformations introduce intensive fluctuations and extreme complexity, which enhance carrier entropy and thus the thermopower, and strongly scatter carriers and phonons as well to make their transports behave critically.

AB - Thermoelectric effects and related technologies have attracted a great interest due to world-wide energy harvesting. Thermoelectricity has usually been considered in the context of stable material phases. Here we report that the fluctuation of structures during the second-order phase transition in Cu 2Se semiconductor breaks the conventional trends of thermoelectric transports in normal phases, leading to a critically phase-transition-enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit zT above unity at 400 K, a three times larger value than for the normal phases. Dynamic structural transformations introduce intensive fluctuations and extreme complexity, which enhance carrier entropy and thus the thermopower, and strongly scatter carriers and phonons as well to make their transports behave critically.

KW - Phase transition

KW - Semiconductor

KW - Structure fluctuation

KW - Thermoelectric

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VL - 93

SP - 121

EP - 124

JO - Materials Letters

JF - Materials Letters

ER -

Structure-transformation-induced abnormal thermoelectric properties in semiconductor copper selenide

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