ABSTRACT
We investigated the effect of single and multidopants on the thermoelectrical properties of host ZnO films. Incorporation of the single dopant Ga in the ZnO films improved the conductivity and mobility but lowered the Seebeck coefficient. Dual Ga- and In-doped ZnO thin films show slightly decreased electrical conductivity but improved Seebeck coefficient. The variation of thermoelectric properties is discussed in terms of film crystallinity, which is subject to the dopants' radius. Small amounts of In dopants with a large radius may introduce localized regions in the host film, affecting the thermoelectric properties. Consequently, a 1.5 times increase in power factor, three times reduction in thermal conductivity, and 5-fold enhancement in the figure of merit ZT have been achieved at 110 °C. The results also indicate that the balanced control of both electron and lattice thermal conductivities through dopant selection are necessary to attain low total thermal conductivity.
ABSTRACT
The La/Sm/Er cations with different radii doping SrTiO3 (STO) as model Sr0.9R0.1TiO3 (R = La, Sm, Er) were designed to investigate structural characteristics and thermal properties by the molecular dynamics simulation with the Green-Kubo relation at 300-2000 K. The structural characteristics were composed of lattice constant, atoms excursion, and pair correlation function (PCF). The thermal properties consisted of heat capacity and thermal conductivity. The lattice constant of R-doped exhibited less than the STO at 300-1100 K and more than STO at 1500-2000 K, which was encouraged by atom excursion and PCF. The thermal properties was compared with literature data at 300-1100 K. In addition, the thermal properties at 1100-2000 K were predicted. It highlights that thermal conductivity tends to decrease at high temperature, due to perturbation of La, Sm, and Er, respectively.