Manipulation of ionized impurity scattering for achieving high thermoelectric performance in n-type Mg 3 Sb 2 -based materials

Abstract

Higher carrier mobility can contribute to a larger power factor, so it is important to identify effective means for achieving higher carrier mobility. Since carrier mobility is governed by the band structure and the carrier scattering mechanism, its possible enhancement could be obtained by manipulating either or both of these. Here, we report a substantial enhancement in carrier mobility by tuning the carrier scattering mechanism in n-type Mg 3 Sb 2 -based materials. The ionized impurity scattering in these materials has been shifted into mixed scattering by acoustic phonons and ionized impurities. Our results clearly demonstrate that the strategy of tuning the carrier scattering mechanism is quite effective for improving the mobility and should also be applicable to other material systems.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Sep 18, 2017
Source ID
10.1073/pnas.1711725114

Entities

People

  • Ching-Wu Chu
  • Clarina Dela Cruz
  • David J. Singh
  • Gang Chen
  • Jiawei Zhou
  • Jifeng Sun
  • Jing Shuai
  • Jun Mao
  • Qinyong Zhang
  • Rebecca L Dally
  • Shaowei Song
  • Stephen D Wilson
  • Yanzhong Pei
  • Yixuan Wu
  • Zhifeng Ren
  • Zihang Liu

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Boston College
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China
  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Tongji University
  • United States Department of Energy
  • University of California
  • University of Houston
  • University of Missouri
  • Xihua University

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.