Publication Type
Journal
Journal Name
Scientific Reports
Publication Date
Page Number
3168
Volume
3
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-parabolic, 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. Analysis within Boltzmann theory shows that this corrugation is favorable for the thermoelectric transport. As a result these materials may exhibit n-type performance exceeding that of the lead chalcogenides.
