In recent years there have been a revival of interest
in discovering and understanding the physical
properties of novel thermoelectric (TE) materials
with high figure of merit. These materials are
primarily narrow band gap semiconductors. In this
book, electronic structure calculations were carried
out for several narrow band gap chalcogenide TE
materials in order to understand their electronic and
transport properties governing their TE
characteristics. These calculations were performed
within DFT whereas the transport calculations were
carried out using Boltzmann transport equations. The
effect of quantum confinement created by the surfaces
of Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 (impact of interlayer bonding)
and their superlattice electronic properties were
investigated. The complex materials (K2Bi8Se13,
AgPbmSbTe2+m (LAST-m)) were studied. For PbTe and
LAST-m materials, which are among the best bulk TE at
high temperatures, transport calculations were
performed. This study should be useful to
professionals in the field of thermoelectricity, or
anyone interested in electronic and transport
properties of narrow gap semiconductors.
in discovering and understanding the physical
properties of novel thermoelectric (TE) materials
with high figure of merit. These materials are
primarily narrow band gap semiconductors. In this
book, electronic structure calculations were carried
out for several narrow band gap chalcogenide TE
materials in order to understand their electronic and
transport properties governing their TE
characteristics. These calculations were performed
within DFT whereas the transport calculations were
carried out using Boltzmann transport equations. The
effect of quantum confinement created by the surfaces
of Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 (impact of interlayer bonding)
and their superlattice electronic properties were
investigated. The complex materials (K2Bi8Se13,
AgPbmSbTe2+m (LAST-m)) were studied. For PbTe and
LAST-m materials, which are among the best bulk TE at
high temperatures, transport calculations were
performed. This study should be useful to
professionals in the field of thermoelectricity, or
anyone interested in electronic and transport
properties of narrow gap semiconductors.