Horichok I. Defect subsystem of heterophase thermoelectric materials based on A4B6 compounds and their properties

The use of the powder compression method for multiphase solid solutions based on A4B6 compounds provides the obtaining of thermoelectric materials with high values of the dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit ZT. Among the investigated materials, the most optimal properties for aplication in thermoelectric generators have been observed for n-Pb0.9Cd0.1Te:Pb (3 at.%) (ZT = 1.5) and p-(Pb0.6Sn0.4)0.9Cd0,1Te (ZT = 0.65). The main advantage of the sample obtained by pressing the powder material is the low value of the thermal conductivity coefficient. For PbCdTe solid solutions, a complex of obtained and known experimental literary data is interpreted based on a defective subsystem model that takes into account own point defects (lead and tellurium vacancies), neutral impurity atoms in the cationic substrate, as well as interstitial cadmium atoms in neutral and single ionized states. In this case, the observed solubility is almost entirely determined by the concentration of substitution atoms, and the experimentally measured values of the Hall concentration of carriers are determined by single-ionized interatomic cadmium atoms.