• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.11
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• pp.839-845
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• 2012

The effect of an AlN additive on the thermoelectric properties of SiC ceramics was studied. Porous SiC ceramics with 48-54% relative density were fabricated by sintering the pressed ${\alpha}-SiC$ powder compacts with AlN at $2100-2200^{\circ}C$ for 3 h in an Ar atmosphere. In the undoped specimens, the Seebeck coefficients were positive (p-type semiconducting) possibly due to a dominant effect of the acceptor impurities (Al, Fe) contained in the starting powder. With AlN addition, the reverse phase transformation of 6H-SiC to 4H-SiC was observed during the sintering process. The electrical conductivity of the AlN doped specimen was larger than that of the undoped specimen under the same conditions, which might be due to a reverse phase trans-formation. The Seebeck coefficient of the AlN doped specimen was also larger than that of the undoped specimen. The density of specimen and the amount of addition had significant effects on the thermoelectric properties.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2015

In this paper, we have reported an enhancement in thermoelectric properties of un-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on silicon (001) substrate by annealing treatment. The grown ZnO thin films were annealed in oxygen environment at $500^{\circ}C-800^{\circ}C$, keeping a step of $100^{\circ}C$ for one hour. Room temperature Seekbeck measurements showed that Seebeck coefficient and power factor increased from 222 to $510{\mu}V/K$ and $8.8{\times}10^{-6}$ to $2.6{\times}10^{-4}Wm^{-1}K^{-2}$ as annealing temperature increased from 500 to $800^{\circ}C$ respectively. This observation was related with the improvement of crystal structure of grown films with annealing temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results demonstrated that full width half maximum (FWHM) of ZnO (002) plane decreased and crystalline size increased as the annealing temperature increased. Photoluminescence study revealed that the intensity of band edge emission increased and defect emission decreased as annealing temperature increased because the density of oxygen vacancy related donor defects decreased with annealing temperature. This argument was further justified by the Hall measurements which showed a decreasing trend of carrier concentration with annealing temperature.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.604-609
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• 2014

The thermoelectric power and dc conductivity of $La_{2/3+x}TiO_{3-{\delta}}$ (x = 0, 0.13) were investigated. The thermoelectric power was negative between 80K and 300K. The measured thermoelectric power of x = 0.13 increased linearly with increased temperatures and was represented by $S_0+BT$. The x = 0 sample exhibited insulating behavior, while the x = 0.13 sample showed metallic behavior. The electric resistivity of x = 0.13 had a linear temperature dependence at high temperatures and a T3/2 dependence below about 100K. On the other hand, the electric resistivity of x = 0 has a linear relation between $ln{\rho}/T$ and 1/T in the range of 200 to 300K, and the activation energy for small polaron hopping was 0.23 eV. The temperature dependence of thermoelectric power and the resistivity of x = 0 suggests that the charge carriers responsible for conduction are strongly localized. This temperature dependence indicates that the charge carrier (x = 0) is an adiabatic small polaron. These experimental results are interpreted in terms of spin (x = 0.13) and small polaron (x = 0) hopping of almost localized Ti 3d electrons.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.412-422
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• 1990

Porous SiC ceramics were proposed to be promising materials for high-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion. Throughthe thermoelectric property measurements and microstructure observations on the porous alpha SiC and the mixture of $\alpha$-and $\beta$-SiC, it was experimentally clarified that elimination of stacking faults and twin boundaries by grain growth is effective to increase the seebeck coefficient and increasing content of $\alpha$-SiC gives rise to lower electrical conductivity. Furthermore, the effects of additives on the thermoelectric properties of 6H-SiC ceramics were also studied. The electrical conductivity and the seebeck coefficient were measured at 35$0^{\circ}C$ to 105$0^{\circ}C$ in argon atmospehre. The thermoelectric conversion efficiency of $\alpha$-SiC ceramics was lower than that of $\beta$-SiC ceramics. The phase homogeneity would be needed to improve the seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity decreased with increasing the content of $\alpha$-phase. In the case of B addition, XRD analysis showed that the phase transformation did not occur during sintering. On the other hand, AlN addiiton enhanced the reverse phase transformation from 6H-SiC to 4H-SiC, and this phenomenon had a great effect upon the electrical conductivity.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.141-146
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• 2020

Thermoelectric Bi₂Te₃ thin films were synthesized by a co-sputtering method at 300℃. A Fe dopant was considered to enhance the thermoelectric properties of the system. The Seebeck coefficient of the Fe-doped films increased whereas the electrical conductivity decreased. As a result, the power factor of the system increased owing to the enhanced Seebeck coefficient. Grain growth inhibition was detected in the Fe-doped system, which produced more grain boundaries in the Fe-doped films than in the undoped system. The increased grain boundary scattering was deemed to be effective for a reduced thermal conductivity. This is advantageous for the preparation of high-performance thermoelectric films.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.456-460
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• 2011

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-fabricated suspended devices were used to measure the in-plane electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity of 304 nm and 516 nm thick InGaAlAs films with 0.3% ErAs nanoparticle inclusions by volume. The suspended device allows comprehensive thermoelectric property measurements from a single thin film or nanowire sample. Both thin film samples have identical material compositions and the sole difference is in the sample thickness. The measured Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity were all larger in magnitude for the thicker sample. While the relative change in values was dependent on the temperature, the thermal conductivity demonstrated the largest decrease for the thinner sample in the measurement temperature range of 325 K to 425 K. This could be a result of the increased phonon scattering due to the surface defects and included ErAs nanoparticles. Similar to the results from other material systems, the combination of the measured data resulted in higher values of the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) for the thinner sample; this result supports the theory that the reduced dimensionality, such as in twodimensional thin films or one-dimensional nanowires, can enhance the thermoelectric figure of merit compared with bulk threedimensional materials. The results strengthen and provide a possible direction in locating and optimizing thermoelectric materials for energy applications.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1534-1539
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• 2018

SnSe single crystal showed a high thermoelectric zT of 2.6 at 923 K mainly due to an extremely low thermal conductivity $0.23W\;m^{-1}\;K^{-1}$. It has anisotropic crystal structure resulting in deterioration of thermoelectric performance in polycrystalline SnSe, providing a low zT of 0.6 and 0.8 for Ag and Na-doped SnSe, respectively. Here, we presented the thermoelectric properties on the K-doped $K_xSn_{1-x}Se$ (x = 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.5, and 2.0%) polycrystals, synthesized by a high-temperature melting and hot-press sintering with annealing process. The K-doping in SnSe efficiently enhances the hole carrier concentration without significant degradation of carrier mobility. We find that there exist widespread Se-rich precipitates, inducing strong phonon scattering and thus resulting in a very low thermal conductivity. Due to low thermal conductivity and moderate power factor, the $K_{0.001}Sn_{0.999}Se$ sample shows an exceptionally high zT of 1.11 at 823 K which is significantly enhanced value in polycrystalline compounds.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.103-107
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• 2021

Temperature dependences of electronic and thermal transport properties of narrow band gap thermoelectric materials are dependent on the transport behavior of minority carriers as well as majority carriers. Thus, weighted mobility ratio, which is defined the ratio of weighted mobility for majority carriers to that for minority carriers, must be one of the important parameters to enhance the performance of thermoelectric materials. Herein, we provided a practical guide for the development of high-performance Bi-Te-based thermoelectric materials based on the weighted mobility ratio control by considering theoretical backgrounds related to the electronic transport phenomena in semiconductors.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.280-284
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• 2012

Bismuth antimony telluride (BiSbTe) thermoelectric materials were successfully prepared by a spark plasma sintering process. Crystalline BiSbTe ingots were crushed into small pieces and then attrition milled into fine powders of about 300 nm ~ 2${\mu}m$ size under argon gas. Spark plasma sintering was applied on the BiSbTe powders at 240, 320, and $380^{\circ}C$, respectively, under a pressure of 40 MPa in vacuum. The heating rate was $50^{\circ}C$/min and the holding time at the sintering temperature was 10 min. At all sintering temperatures, high density bulk BiSbTe was successfully obtained. The XRD patterns verify that all samples were well matched with the $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_{3}$. Seebeck coefficient (S), electric conductivity (${\sigma}$) and thermal conductivity (k) were evaluated in a temperature range of $25{\sim}300^{\circ}C$. The thermoelectric properties of BiSbTe were evaluated by the thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT (ZT = $S^2{\sigma}T$/k). The grain size and electric conductivity of sintered BiSbTe increased as the sintering temperature increased but the thermal conductivity was similar at all sintering temperatures. Grain growth reduced the carrier concentration, because grain growth reduced the grain boundaries, which serve as acceptors. Meanwhile, the carrier mobility was greatly increased and the electric conductivity was also improved. Consequentially, the grains grew with increasing sintering temperature and the figure of merit was improved.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.157-161
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• 2019

Independent control of electronic and thermal transport behaviors is one of the most effective approaches to enhance the performance of thermoelectric materials. To address this, many researches on the relationship between defect structures and thermoelectric properties have been carried out since defects are intrinsic ingredients of polycrystalline materials. Recently, experimental results of simultaneously improved electronic and thermal transport properties have been reported via the formation of 0-dimensional point defects. Here, theoretical backgrounds to the engineering of electronic and thermal transport behaviors by the formation of point defects are discussed and related experimental considerations are also presented in order to provide a practical guide for the development of highperformance thermoelectric materials.