Tuning of dimensionless figure of merit via boundary scattering in In 2 O 3-δ

Yoshiaki Kinemuchi (1, 2) , Emmanuel Guilmeau (2) , Oleg Lebedev (2) , Antoine Maignan (2)

1 AIST - National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
2 CRISMAT - Laboratoire de cristallographie et sciences des matériaux

In this paper, the dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) is optimized using the scattering in nanocrystals (NCs) of Zr-doped In2O3-δ. The effect of boundary scattering on the thermoelectric properties of the NCs was analyzed using the Boltzmann transport equation and Debye-Callaway model. A ZT map computed based on these theories determined the optimum material parameters to improve the transport properties of the NCs. A theoretically predicted enhancement in ZT of ∼40% can be reproduced experimentally, indicating that engineering of ZT using NCs is promising.

Domains: Chemical Sciences; Material chemistry

Yoshiaki Kinemuchi, Emmanuel Guilmeau, Oleg Lebedev, Antoine Maignan. Tuning of dimensionless figure of merit via boundary scattering in In 2 O 3-δ. Journal of Applied Physics, 2011, 110 (12), pp.124304. ⟨10.1063/1.3669392⟩. ⟨hal-02264214⟩