Lattice Dislocations Enhancing Thermoelectric PbTe in Addition to Band Convergence

Phonon scattering by nanostructures and point defects has become the primary strategy for minimizing the lattice thermal conductivity (κ L ) in thermoelectric materials. However, these scatterers are only effective at the extremes of the phonon spectrum. Recently, it has been demonstrated that dislocations are effective at scattering the remaining mid‐frequency phonons as well. In this work, by varying the concentration of Na in Pb 0.97 Eu 0.03 Te, it has been determined that the dominant microstructural features are point defects, lattice dislocations, and nanostructure interfaces. This study reveals that dense lattice dislocations (≈4 × 10 12 cm −2 ) are particularly effective at reducing κ L . When the…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: DE-SC0001299, DE‐SC0001299
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• SS
  Salt Science Research Foundation
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 51422208, 11474219, 51401147
• OO
  Office of Science

  Awards: S3TEC, DE-SC0001299
• SS
  Solid-State Solar Thermal Energy Conversion, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Award: DE-SC0001299
• FR
  Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
• BE
  Basic Energy Sciences

  Award: DE-SC0001299