Efficient Reduction of Carrier Concentration in SnTe: The Case of Gd Doping

doi:10.1007/s40195-024-01790-1

Abstract

Abstract:

Lead-free SnTe with naturally non-stoichiometric vacancies has a limited thermoelectric performance due to a deviated carrier concentration from the optimum. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrated that Gd with + 3 valence state as a novel n-type dopant is an effective solution for reducing carrier concentration in SnTe. A lowest value of 7.6 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ has been achieved. Yet with the involvement of Gd doping, the slightly modified band structure requires a further Sn-deficiency compensation to enhance the overall figure of merit zT. As a consequence, in the specific sample Sn_0.91Gd_0.07Te, we successfully achieved a low lattice thermal conductivity of 0.8 W/(m K) due to the high doping level and an improved zT approaching 0.8 at 850 K.

Key words: SnTe, Band engineering, Solubility, Thermoelectric performance

Siqi Lin, Shiyun Wang, Yanjiao Li, Zhenyu Lai, Xiaotang Yang, Xinyu Lu, Min Jin. Efficient Reduction of Carrier Concentration in SnTe: The Case of Gd Doping[J]. Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters), 2025, 38(5): 859-868.

Figures/Tables 7

Fig. 1 Room temperature X-ray diffraction patterns a and composition-dependent lattice parameters b for Sn1-xGdxTe (x ≤ 0.1)

Fig. 2 SEM images and energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS) mappings for Sn0.91Gd0.09Te a and Sn0.9Gd0.1Te b

Fig. 3 Dopant concentration-dependent reduction of Hall carrier concentration (nH) for Sn1-xGdxTe with a comparison to other common dopants from the literature [53,54,56,57,74]

Fig. 4 Hall carrier concentration-dependent Seebeck coefficient and Hall mobility at room temperature a, c and 723 K b, d for Sn1-xGdxTe, with a comparision to the literature modeling and measurements

Fig. 5 Temperature-dependent Seebeck coefficient a, resistivity b, Hall coefficient c, Hall mobility d, total thermal conductivity e, the sum of lattice and bipolar contributions to the thermal conductivity f for Sn1-xGdxTe, respectively

Fig. 6 Temperature-dependent Seebeck coefficient a, resistivity b, Hall coefficient c, Hall mobility d, total thermal conductivity e, the sum of lattice and bipolar contributions to the thermal conductivity f for Sn0.94Gd0.05Te and Sn0.91Gd0.07Te

Fig. 7 Temperature-dependent figure of merit for Sn1-xGdxTe a, for Sn0.94Gd0.05Te and Sn0.91Gd0.07Te b with a comparison of Gd-doped SnTe from former experiment and literature results

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