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Amorphous-Like Ultralow Thermal Transport in Crystalline Argyrodite Cu7PS6
2024, Shen, Xingchen, Ouyang, Niuchang, Huang, Yuling, Tung, Yung‐Hsiang, Yang, Chun‐Chuen, Faizan, Muhammad, Perez, Nicolas, He, Ran, Sotnikov, Andrei, Willa, Kristin, Wang, Chen, Chen, Yue, Guilmeau, Emmanuel
Due to their amorphous-like ultralow lattice thermal conductivity both below and above the superionic phase transition, crystalline Cu- and Ag-based superionic argyrodites have garnered widespread attention as promising thermoelectric materials. However, despite their intriguing properties, quantifying their lattice thermal conductivities and a comprehensive understanding of the microscopic dynamics that drive these extraordinary properties are still lacking. Here, an integrated experimental and theoretical approach is adopted to reveal the presence of Cu-dominated low-energy optical phonons in the Cu-based argyrodite Cu7PS6. These phonons yield strong acoustic-optical phonon scattering through avoided crossing, enabling ultralow lattice thermal conductivity. The Unified Theory of thermal transport is employed to analyze heat conduction and successfully reproduce the experimental amorphous-like ultralow lattice thermal conductivities, ranging from 0.43 to 0.58 W m−1 K−1, in the temperature range of 100–400 K. The study reveals that the amorphous-like ultralow thermal conductivity of Cu7PS6 stems from a significantly dominant wave-like conduction mechanism. Moreover, the simulations elucidate the wave-like thermal transport mainly results from the contribution of Cu-associated low-energy overlapping optical phonons. This study highlights the crucial role of low-energy and overlapping optical modes in facilitating amorphous-like ultralow thermal transport, providing a thorough understanding of the underlying complex dynamics of argyrodites.
Density-Dependence of Surface Transport in Tellurium-Enriched Nanograined Bulk Bi2Te3
2023, Izadi, Sepideh, Bhattacharya, Ahana, Salloum, Sarah, Han, Jeong Woo, Schnatmann, Lauritz, Wolff, Ulrike, Perez, Nicolas, Bendt, Georg, Ennen, Inga, Hütten, Andreas, Nielsch, Kornelius, Schulz, Stephan, Mittendorff, Martin, Schierning, Gabi
Three-dimensional topological insulators (3D TI) exhibit conventional parabolic bulk bands and protected Dirac surface states. A thorough investigation of the different transport channels provided by the bulk and surface carriers using macroscopic samples may provide a path toward accessing superior surface transport properties. Bi2Te3 materials make promising 3D TI models; however, due to their complicated defect chemistry, these materials have a high number of charge carriers in the bulk that dominate the transport, even as nanograined structures. To partially control the bulk charge carrier density, herein the synthesis of Te-enriched Bi2Te3 nanoparticles is reported. The resulting nanoparticles are compacted into nanograined pellets of varying porosity to tailor the surface-to-volume ratio, thereby emphasizing the surface transport channels. The nanograined pellets are characterized by a combination of resistivity, Hall- and magneto-conductance measurements together with (THz) time-domain reflectivity measurements. Using the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka (HLN) model, a characteristic coherence length of ≈200 nm is reported that is considerably larger than the diameter of the nanograins. The different contributions from the bulk and surface carriers are disentangled by THz spectroscopy, thus emphasizing the dominant role of the surface carriers. The results strongly suggest that the surface transport carriers have overcome the hindrance imposed by nanoparticle boundaries.
Influence of Nanoparticle Processing on the Thermoelectric Properties of (BixSb1−X)2Te3 Ternary Alloys
2021, Salloum, Sarah, Bendt, Georg, Heidelmann, Markus, Loza, Kateryna, Bayesteh, Samaneh, Izadi, M. Sepideh, Patrick, Kawulok, He, Ran, Schlörb, Heike, Perez, Nicolas, Reith, Heiko, Nielsch, Kornelius, Schierning, Gabi, Schulz, Stephan
The synthesis of phase‐pure ternary solutions of tetradymite‐type materials (BixSb1−x)2Te3 (x=0.25; 0.50; 0.75) in an ionic liquid approach has been carried out. The nanoparticles are characterized by means of energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX), powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy. In addition, the role of different processing approaches on the thermoelectric properties ‐ Seebeck coefficient as well as electrical and thermal conductivity ‐ is demonstrated.
Interface-Dominated Topological Transport in Nanograined Bulk Bi2 Te3
2021, Izadi, Sepideh, Han, Jeong Woo, Salloum, Sarah, Wolff, Ulrike, Schnatmann, Lauritz, Asaithambi, Aswin, Matschy, Sebastian, Schlörb, Heike, Reith, Heiko, Perez, Nicolas, Nielsch, Kornelius, Schulz, Stephan, Mittendorff, Martin, Schierning, Gabi
3D topological insulators (TI) host surface carriers with extremely high mobility. However, their transport properties are typically dominated by bulk carriers that outnumber the surface carriers by orders of magnitude. A strategy is herein presented to overcome the problem of bulk carrier domination by using 3D TI nanoparticles, which are compacted by hot pressing to macroscopic nanograined bulk samples. Bi2Te3 nanoparticles well known for their excellent thermoelectric and 3D TI properties serve as the model system. As key enabler for this approach, a specific synthesis is applied that creates nanoparticles with a low level of impurities and surface contamination. The compacted nanograined bulk contains a high number of interfaces and grain boundaries. Here it is shown that these samples exhibit metallic-like electrical transport properties and a distinct weak antilocalization. A downward trend in the electrical resistivity at temperatures below 5 K is attributed to an increase in the coherence length by applying the Hikami–Larkin–Nagaoka model. THz time-domain spectroscopy reveals a dominance of the surface transport at low frequencies with a mobility of above 103 cm2 V−1 s−1 even at room temperature. These findings clearly demonstrate that nanograined bulk Bi2Te3 features surface carrier properties that are of importance for technical applications.