• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.432-437
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• 2000

Thermoelectric properties of p-type SiGe alloys prepared by a RF inductive furnace were investigated. Non-doped Si80Ge20 alloys were fabricated by control of the quantity of volatile Ge. The carrier of p-type SiGe alloy was controlled by B-doping. B doped p-type SiGe alloys were synthesized by melting the mixture of Ge and Si containing B. The effects of sintering/annealing conditions and compaction pressure on thermoelectric properties (electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient) were investigated. For nondoped SiGe alloys, electrical conductivity increased with increasing temperatures and Seebeck coefficient was measured negative showing a typical n-type semiconductivity. On the other hand, B-doped SiGe alloys exhibited positive Seebeck coefficient and their electrical conductivity decreased with increasing temperatures. Thermoelectric properties were more sensitive to compaction pressure than annealing time. The highest power factor obtained in this work was 8.89${\times}$10-6J/cm$.$K2$.$s for 1 at% B-doped SiGe alloy.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.181-187
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• 1998

The ionization energy and degree of ionization for p-type $Si_{1-x}Ge_x$ with boron doping are calculated taking into account the screening and broadening effects. The drift and Hall mobilities are then calculated using the relaxation time approximation and compared with the previously reported measurement data for relaxed and strained $Si_{1-x}Ge_x$ alloys to estimate the alloy scattering potential. From a fit, the alloy scattering potential is found to be 0.5 eV. The in-plane drift mobility for p-type strained $Si_{1-x}Ge_x$ grown on (001) Si substrate is approximately 1+$10x^2$ times higher than that for bulk Si in the high doping range.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 1993.11a
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• pp.57-58
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• 1993

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.272-276
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• 2007

P-type thermoelectric material $Si_{0.8}Ge_{0.2}$ was sintered by Hot Press process (HP) and the effect of boron ($0.25{\sim}2$ at%) addition on the thermoelectric properties were reported. To enhance the thermoelectric performances, the $Si_{0.8}Ge_{0.2}$, alloys were fabricated by mechanical alloying (MA) and HP. The carrier of p-type SiGe alloy was controlled by B-doping. The effect of sintering condition and thermoelectric properties were investigated. B-doped SiGe alloys exhibited positive seebeck coefficient. The electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity were increased at the small amount of boron content ($0.25{\sim}0.5$ at%). However, they were decreased over 0.5 at% boron content. As a result, the small addition of boron improved the Z value. The Z value of 0.5 at% B doped $Si_{0.8}Ge_{0.2}$ B alloy was $0.9{\times}10{-4}/K$, the highest value among the prepared alloys.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.24-28
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• 2017

Silicon alloys are considered promising anode active materials to replace Li-ion batteries by graphite powder, because they have a relatively high capacity of up to 4200 mAh/g, and are environmentally friendly and inexpensive ECO-materials. However, its poor charge/discharge properties, induced by cracking during cycles, constitute their most serious problem as anode electrode. In order to solve these problems, Si-Ge-Al alloys with porous structure are designed as anode alloy powders, to improve cycling stability. The alloys are melt-spun to obtain the rapidly solidified ribbons, and then ball-milled to make fine powders. The powders are etched using 1 M HCl solution, which gives the powders a porous structure by removing the element Al. Subsequently, in this study, the microstructures and the characteristics of the etched powders are evaluated for application as anode materials. As a result, the etched porous powder shows better electrochemical properties than as-milled Si-Ge-Al powder.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.416-427
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• 1994

The changes of crystallinity and microstructure and the $Si_{1-x}Ge_x/Sio_2$ interfaces of $Si_{1-x}Ge_x$ alloys deposited on amorphous $SiO_{2}$ were studied as a function of deposition temperature. The crystallinity, microstructure, and compositional uniformity of $Si_{1-x}Ge_x$ alloys deposited on the SiOl at different temperature were investigated by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. And $Si_{1-x}Ge_x/Sio_2$ interface were investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The $Si_{0.7}Ge_{0.3}/Sio_2$ films were deposited on amorphous $SiO_{2}$ at $300^{\circ}C,400^{\circ}C,500^{\circ}C,600^{\circ}C,$ and $700^{\circ}C$ by Si-MBE. In the film deposited at $300^{\circ}C$, only amorphous phase were observed. In the film deposited at $400^{\circ}C$, both amorphous and polycrystalline films were observed. Both phases were deposited simultaneously, but, at initial film growth, amorphous phase prevailed over polycrystalline phase. As the film thickness increased, the fraction of polycrystalline phase increased. At $500^{\circ}C$, thin amorphous layer was observed at lOnm from $SiO_{2}$ surface. In the films deposited at higher than $600^{\circ}C$, only crystalline phase were observed. Polycrystalline films had columnar structure. Compositional uniformity for deposited films were good regardless of deposition temperature. The interfaces of $Si_{1-x}Ge_x/Sio_2$ were flat, whatever polycrystal or amorphous was deposited on $SiO_{2}$.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1540-1545
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• 2018

SiGe alloy is widely used thermoelectric materials for high temperature thermoelectric generator applications. However, its high thermoelectric performance has been thus far realized only in alloys synthesized employing mechanical alloying techniques, which are time-consuming and employ several materials processing steps. In the current study, for the first time, we report an enhanced thermoelectric figure-of-merit (ZT) ~ 1.1 at $900^{\circ}C$ in ntype $Si_{80}Ge_{20}$ nano-alloys, synthesized using a facile and up-scalable methodology consisting of rapid solidification at high optimized cooling rate ${\sim}3.4{\times}10^7K/s$, employing melt spinning followed by spark plasma sintering of the resulting nano-crystalline melt-spun ribbons. This enhancement in ZT > 20% over its bulk counterpart, owes its origin to the nano-crystalline microstructure formed at high cooling rates, which results in crystallite size ~7 nm leading to high density of grain boundaries, which scatter heat-carrying phonons. This abundant scattering resulted in a very low thermal conductivity ${\sim}2.1Wm^{-1}K^{-1}$, which corresponds to ~50% reduction over its bulk counterpart and is amongst the lowest reported thus far in n-type SiGe alloys. The synthesized samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, based on which the enhancement in their thermoelectric performance has been discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.117-121
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• 2013

In this study we investigated magnetism and magnetostriction of B2-structured FeX (X = Al, Si, Ni, Ga, Ge, and Sn) using a first-principles method, in order to survey the possibility of developing a transition metal based magnetostriction material. The Full-potential Linearized Augmented Plane Wave method was employed for solving the Kohn-Sham equation within the generalized gradient approximation for exchange-correlation interaction between electrons. FeX alloys are stabilized in ferromagnetic states except for the FeSi and FeGe alloys. Magnetostrcition coefficients of FeX (X = Al, Ni, Ga, and Sn) were calculated to be -5, +6, -84, -522ppm, respectively. It is noteworthy that the magnetostriction coefficient (-522ppm) of FeSn is larger than that (+400ppm) of Gafenol.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2011

The silicon-germanium (SiGe) alloy, which is compatible with silicon semiconductor technology and has a smaller band gap and a lower thermal conductivity than silicon, has been used to fabricate electronic devices such as transistors, photodetectors, solar cells, and thermoelectric devices. This paper reviews the application of SiGe alloys to electronic devices and related technical issues. Since the SiGe alloy comprises germanium whose band gap is smaller than silicon, its band gap is also smaller than that of silicon irrespective of the ratio of silicon to germanium. This narrow band gap of SiGe enables the base thickness of bipolar transistors to decrease without a loss in current gain so that it is possible to improve the speed of bipolar transistors by adopting the SiGe-base. In addition, the conversion efficiency of solar cells is enhanced by the absorption of long-wavelength light in the SiGe absorption layer. Phonon scattering caused by the irregular distribution of alloying elements induces the lower thermal conductivity of SiGe than those of pure silicon and germanium. Because a thin film layer with a low thermal conductivity suppresses thermal conduction through a thermal sink, the SiGe alloy is considered to be a promising material for silicon-based thermoelectric systems.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.345-358
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• 1998

The evolution of surface roughness and morphology in epitaxial Si and $Si_{0.7}Ge{0.3}$ alloys grown by UHV opm-beam sputter deposition onto nominally-singular, [100]-, and [110]-mi-scut Si(001) was investigated by stomic force microscopy and trasmission electron microscopy. The evolution of surface roughness of epitaxial Si films grown at $300^{\circ}C$ is inconsistent with conventional scaling and hyperscaling laws for kineti roughening. Unstable growth leading to the formation of mounds separated by a well-defined length scale is observed on all substrates. Contraty to previous high-temperature growth results, the presence of steps during deposition at $300^{\circ}C$ increases the tendency toward unstable growth resulting in a much earlier development of mound structures and larger surface roughnesses on vicival substrates. Strain-induced surface roughening was found to dominate in $Si_{0.7}Ge{0.3}$ alloys grown on singular Si(001) substrates at $T_S\ge450^{\circ}C$ where the coherent islands are prererentially bounded along <100> directions and eshibt {105} facetting. Increasing the film thickness above critical values for strain relaxation leads to island coalescence and surface smoothening. At very low growth temperatures ($T_s\le 250^{\circ}C$), film surfaces roughen kinetically, due to limited adatom diffusiviry, but at far lower rates than in the higher-temperature strain-induced regime. There is an intermediate growth temperature range, however, over which alloy film surfaces remain extremely smooth even at thicknesses near critical values for strain relaxation.