Abstract
The average and local structures of the system of thermoelectric materials has been studied using the Rietveld and atomic pair distribution function methods. Samples with are macroscopically phase separated. Phase separation was suppressed in a quenched sample which, nonetheless, exhibited a partial spinodal decomposition. The promising thermoelectric material with showed intermediate behavior. Combining TEM and bulk scattering data suggests that the sample is a mixture of PbTe-rich material and a partially spinodally decomposed phase similar to the quenched 50% sample. This confirms that, in the bulk, this sample is inhomogeneous on a nanometer length scale, which may account for its enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit.
3 More- Received 15 December 2006
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.045204
©2009 American Physical Society