This article reviews the principles that govern the combined transport of spin, heat, and charge. The extensive thermodynamic quantity associated with spin transport is the magnetization; its Onsager-conjugate force is in general the derivative of the free energy with respect to the magnetization. Spins are carried in one of two ways: (1) by spin-polarized free electrons in magnetic metals and doped semiconductors, or (2) by spin waves (magnons) that reside on localized electrons on unfilled d- or f-shells of transition metal or rare-earth elements. The paper covers both cases in separate chapters. In both cases, it is possible to define a spin chemical potential whose gradient is the more practical conjugate force to spin transport. The paper further describes the anomalous Hall, spin Hall, and inverse spin Hall effects in magnetic and non-magnetic solids with strong spin-orbit coupling because these effects are used to generate and measure spin fluxes. Spin transport across interfaces is described next, and includes spin pumping and spin transfer torque. The final chapter then puts all these concepts together to describe the spin-Seebeck, spin-Peltier, and magnon-drag effects, which exist in ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic, and even paramagnetic solids. Magnon-drag, in particular, is a high-temperature effect that boosts the thermopower of metals by an order of magnitude and that of semiconductors by a factor of 2 or 3 above the electronic diffusion thermopower. This is the only example where a spin-driven effect is larger than a charge-driven effect. Magnon drag leads a simple binary paramagnetic semiconductor, MnTe, to have zT > 1 without optimization. This shows how adding spin as an additional design parameter in thermoelectrics research is a new and promising approach toward the quest for high-zT materials.
A composite material is considered which consists of conducting nanoparticles separated by tunneling dielectric barriers. The influence of the phonon thermal conductivity of dielectric matrix on the thermoelectric figure of merit of this composite material is theoretically in-vestigated. The range of values and barrier parameters that can lead to the thermoelectric figure of merit greater than unity is estimated. The influence of space charge and nonlinearity of current-voltage relations of tunneling barrier are also discussed.
Significant progress has been made in recent studies of thermal and thermoelectric transport phenomena in nanostructures and low-dimensional systems. This article reviews several intriguing quantum and classical size effects on thermal and thermoelectric properties that have been predicted by theoretical calculations or observed in experiments. Attention is focused on the Casimir limit in phonon boundary scattering and the effect of phonon confinement on the lattice thermal conductivity of semiconductor nanowires (NWs) and nanomeshes; the effects of thickness, lateral size, and interface inter…
Silicon carbide nanoparticles with diameters around 8 nm and with narrow size distribution have been finely mixed with doped silicon nanopowders and sintered into bulk samples to investigate the influence of nanoinclusions on electrical and thermal transport properties. We have compared the thermoelectric properties of samples ranging from 0-5% volume fraction of silicon carbide. The silicon carbide nanoinclusions lead to a significant improvement in the thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, largely due to an enhancement of the Seebeck coefficient. A semiclassical Boltzmann transport equation is…
We report transport studies on (Bi,Sb)2Te3 topological insulator thin films with tunable electronic band structure. We find a doping and temperature regime in which the Hall coefficient is negative indicative of electron-type carriers, whereas the Seebeck coefficient is positive indicative of hole-type carriers. This sign anomaly is due to the distinct transport behaviors of the bulk and surface states: the surface Dirac fermions dominate magnetoelectric transport while the thermoelectric effect is mainly determined by the bulk states. These findings may inspire new ideas for designing topolog…
Topological insulators have gapless edge/surface states with novel transport properties. Among these, there are two classes of perfectly conducting channels which are free from backscattering: the edge states of two-dimensional topological insulators and the one-dimensional states localized on dislocations of certain three-dimensional topological insulators. We show how these novel states affect thermoelectric properties of the systems and discuss possibilities to improve the thermoelectric figure of merit using these materials with perfectly conducting channels.
The subject of thermal transport at the mesoscopic scale and in low-dimensional systems is interesting for both fundamental research and practical applications. As the first example of truly two-dimensional materials, graphene has exceptionally high thermal conductivity, and thus provides an ideal platform for the research. Here we review recent studies on thermal and thermoelectric properties of graphene, with an emphasis on experimental progresses. A general physical picture based on the Landauer transport formalism is introduced to understand underlying mechanisms. We show that the superior…
We consider the anomalous thermoelectric transport in gapped single and bilayer graphene where the gap may be due to broken inversion symmetry. In the presence of the gap, non-trivial Berry phase effects can be shown to mediate a transverse thermoelectric voltage in response to an applied temperature gradient even in the absence of a perpendicular magnetic field. This spontaneous, anomalous Nernst effect is nonzero for non-uniform chemical potential in the two inequivalent valleys in the graphene band structure. Conversely, the Nernst response can be used to create a valley-index polarization …
The thermoelectric transport coefficients of electrons in two recently emerged transition metal dichalcogenides(TMD), MoS2 and WSe2, are calculated by solving Boltzmann Transport equation and coupled electrical and thermal current equations using Rode iterative technique. Scattering from localized donor impurities, acoustic deformation potential, longitudinal optical (LO) phonons, and substrate induced remote phonon modes are taken into account. Hybridization of TMD plasmon with remote phonon modes is investigated. Dynamic screening under linear polarization response is explored in TMDs sittin…
This paper reviews recent developments in quantum transport and it presents recent efforts to explore the contribution of topological insulator boundary states to thermoelectricity in Bi$_2$Te$_3$ thin films. Although Bi$_2$Te$_3$ has been used as a thermoelectric material for many years, it is only recently that thin films of this material have been synthesized as 3D topological insulators with interesting physics and potential applications related to topologically protected surface states. A major bottleneck in Bi$_2$Te$_3$ thin films has been eliminating its bulk conductivity while increasi…
We apply the generalized Boltzmann theory to describe thermoelectric transport properties of monolayer phosphorene in the presence of short- and long-range charged impurity interactions. First, we propose a low-energy Hamiltonian to explore the accurate electronic band structure of phosphorene in comparison with those results obtained by density-functional simulations. We explain the effect of the coupling between the conduction and valence bands on the thermoelectric properties. We show that the electric conductivity of phosphorene is highly anisotropic, while the Seebeck coefficient and figu…
Defects such as vacancies and impurities could have profound effects on the transport properties of thermoelectric materials. However, it is usually quite difficult to directly calculate the thermoelectric properties of defect-containing systems via first-principles method since very large supercell is required. In this work, based on the linear response theory and the kernel polynomial method, we present an efficient approach that can help to calculate the thermoelectric transport coefficients of a large system containing millions of atoms at arbitrary chemical potential and temperature. As a…
The energy efficiency and power of a three-terminal thermoelectric nanodevice are studied by considering elastic tunneling through a single quantum dot. Facilitated by the three-terminal geometry, the nanodevice is able to generate simultaneously two electrical powers by utilizing only one temperature bias. These two electrical powers can add up constructively or destructively, depending on their signs. It is demonstrated that the constructive addition leads to the enhancement of both energy efficiency and output power for various system parameters. In fact, such enhancement, dubbed as thermoe…
Thermoelectric effects in a quantum dot coupled to the source and drain charge reservoirs are explored using a nonequilibrium Green's functions formalism beyond the Hartree-Fock approximation. Thermal transport is analyzed within a linear response regime. A transition from Coulomb blockade regime to Kondo regime in thermoelectric transport through a single-level quantum dot is traced using unified approximations for the relevant Green's functions.
We have combined the Boltzmann transport equation with an {\it ab initio} approach to compute the thermoelectric coefficients of semiconductors. Electron-phonon, ionized impurity, and electron-plasmon scattering rates have been taken into account. The electronic band structure and average intervalley deformation potentials for the electron-phonon coupling are obtained from the density functional theory. The linearized Boltzmann equation has then been solved numerically beyond the relaxation time approximation. Our approach has been applied to crystalline silicon. We present results for the mob…
The Monte Carlo technique is used to calculate electrical as well as thermoelectric transport properties across thin film heterostructures. We study a thin InGaAsP barrier layer sandwiched between two InGaAs contact layers, when the barrier thickness is in 50nm-2000nm range. We found that with decreasing size, the effective Seebeck coefficient is increased substantially. The transition between pure ballistic thermionic transport and fully diffusive thermoelectric transport is also described.
The thermoelectric efficiency of semiconductors is usually considered in the ohmic electronic transport regime, which is achieved through high doping. Here we consider the opposite regime of low doping where the current-voltage characteristics are nonlinear and dominated by space-charge-limited transport. We show that in this regime, the thermoelectric efficiency can be described by a single figure of merit, in analogy with the ohmic case. Efficiencies for bulk, thin film, and nanowire materials are discussed, and it is proposed that nanowires are the most promising to take advantage of space-…
The thermoelectric transport properties of $\text{Bi}_2\text{Te}_3/\text{Sb}_2\text{Te}_3$superlattices are analyzed on the basis of first-principles calculations and semi-classical Boltzmann theory. The anisotropy of the thermoelectric transport under electron and hole-doping was studied in detail for different superlattice periods at changing temperature and charge carrier concentrations. A clear preference for thermoelectric transport under hole-doping, as well as for the in-plane transport direction was found for all superlattice periods. At hole-doping the electrical transport anisotropie…
We analyze the effect of the tilt on the transverse thermoelectric coefficient of Weyl semimetals in the \emph{conformal} limit, i.e., zero temperature and zero chemical potential. Using the Kubo formalism, we find a nonmonotonic behavior of the thermoelectric conductivity as a function of the tilt perpendicular to the magnetic field, and a linear behavior when the tilt is aligned to the magnetic field. An ``axial Nernst" current (chiral currents counter propagating perpendicularly to the magnetic field and the temperature gradient) is generated in inversion symmetric Weyl materials when the t…
The quantum Hall effect in a 2D electron system expresses a topological invariant, leading to a quantized conductivity. The thermal Hall and thermoelectric Nernst conductances in two dimensions are also reported to be quantized in specific systems. However, a comprehensive study of these quantities within one formalism for quantum Hall systems is so far elusive. In this work, we investigate the Hall, thermal Hall, and Nernst effects analytically and numerically in 2D and 3D. In addition to the quantized values for the Hall and thermal Hall conductances in two dimensions, we also find quasi-qua…
Bi2Te3 based thermoelectric devices typically use a nickel layer as a diffusion barrier to block the diffusion of solder or copper atoms from the electrode into the thermoelectric material. Previous studies have shown degradation in the efficiency of these thermoelectric devices may be due to the diffusion of the barrier layer into the thermoelectric material. In this work Ni, Co, Fe, and Mn are intentionally doped into Cu0.01Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 in order to understand their effects on the thermoelectric material. Thermoelectric transport properties including the Seebeck coefficient, thermal conducti…
We present a first principles based model of electron-phonon scattering mechanisms and thermoelectric transport at the L and $Σ$ valleys in <200b>$p$-type PbTe, accounting for their thermally induced shifts. Our calculated values of all thermoelectric transport parameters at room temperature are in very good agreement with experiments for a wide range of doping concentrations. Scattering due to longitudinal optical phonons is the main scattering mechanism in $p$-type PbTe, while scattering due to transverse optical modes is the weakest. The L valleys contribute most to thermoelectric transport…
Hierarchically nanostructured materials, where disorder is introduced in various length scales (at the atomic scale, the nanoscale, and the mesoscale) is one of the most promising directions to achieve extremely low thermal conductivities and improve thermoelectric performance. Here we theoretically investigate one such system, a nanocrystalline material with nanopores that are introduced between the crystalline regions. We use the Nonequilibrium Greens Function method for electronic transport and Molecular Dynamics for phonon transport.
The introduction of A-site vacancies in SrTiO3 results in a glass-like thermal conductivity while Nb substituted samples maintains good electrical conductivity. This unexpected result brings SrTiO3 one step closer to being a high-performing phonon-glass electron-crystal thermoelectric material.
Electron-crystal and phonon-glass are regarded as two essential factors for ideal thermoelectric materials, which require both an enhanced electronic transport and a depressed phononic transport. These two characteristics usually can not coexist in complete bulk semiconductors because of the strong interaction between electrons and phonons. Introducing nanostructures into bulk thermoelectric materials has long been applying to allow for diverse phonon scattering mechanisms to reduce lattice thermal conductivity while keeping the electrical conductivity intact. However, some two-dimensional mat…
The lattice thermal conductivity ($κ_{\rm L}$) of PbTiO$_3$ (PTO) is estimated using a combination of {\em ab initio} calculations and semiclassical Boltzmann transport equation. The computed $κ_{\rm L}$ is remarkably low, nearly comparable with the $κ_{\rm L}$ of good thermoelectric materials such as PbTe. In addition, a semiclassical analysis of the electronic transport quantities is presented, which suggests excellent thermoelectric properties, with a figure of merit $zT$ well over 1 for a wide range of temperature. For thermoelectric applications, the $κ_{\rm L}$ could be further reduced b…
We study longitudinal electric and thermoelectric transport coefficients of Dirac fermions on a simple lattice model where tuning of a single parameter enables us to change the type of Dirac cones from type-I to type-II. We pay particular attention to the behavior of the critical situation, i.e., the type-III Dirac cone. We find that the transport coefficients of the type-III Dirac fermions behave as the limiting case of neither the type-I nor type-II. On the one hand, the qualitative behaviors of the type-III case are similar to those of the type-I case. On the other hand, the transport coeff…
Ab initio electronic structure calculations based on density functional theory and tight-binding methods for the thermoelectric properties of p-type Sb$_2$Te$_3$ films are presented. The thickness-dependent electrical conductivity and the ther- mopower are computed in the diffusive limit of transport based on the Boltzmann equation. Contributions of the bulk and the surface to the transport coefficients are separated which enables to identify a clear impact of the topological surface state on the thermoelectric properties. By tuning the charge carrier concentration, a crossover between a surfa…
In-plane thermal conductivity of the thermoelectric layered cobalt oxides has been measured using the Harman method, in which thermal conductivity is obtained from temperature gradient induced by applied current. We have found that the charge reservoir block (the block other than the CoO$_2$ block) dominates the thermal conduction, where a nano-block integration concept is effective for material design. We have further found that the thermal conductivity shows a small but finite in-plane anisotropy between $a$ and $b$ axes, which can be ascribed to the misfit structure.
Thermoelectric materials enables the harvest of waste heat and directly conversion into electricity. In search of high efficient thermoelectric materials, low thermal conductivity of a material is essential and critical. Here, we have theoretically investigated the lattice thermal conductivity and thermoelectric properties of layered intermetallic Na$_2$MgSn and Na$_2$MgPb based on the density functional theory and linearized Boltzmann equation with the single-mode relaxation-time approximation. It is found that both materials exhibit very low and anisotropic intrinsic lattice thermal conducti…
We report the synthesis of n-type SnSe$_{1-x}$ using a self-sacrificial, facile, solvo-thermal synthesis route. Electrical and thermal transport measurements suggest a low thermal conductivity and a significant thermopower in the temperature range 100 - 400\,K. We also propose the possibility of developing an all SnSe thermoelectric module.
The copper silver selenide has two phases: the low-temperature semimetal phase (α-CuAgSe) and high-temperature phonon-glass superionic phase (\b{eta}-CuAgSe). In this work, the electric transport and thermoelectric properties of the two phases are investigated. It is revealed that the \b{eta}-CuAgSe is a p-type semiconductor and exhibits low thermal conductivity while the α-CuAgSe shows metallic conduction with dominant n-type carriers and low electrical resistivity. The thermoelectric figure of merit zT of the polycrystalline \b{eta}-CuAgSe at 623 K is ~0.95, suggesting that superionic CuAgSe…
We report calculations of the electronic structure, vibrational properties and transport for the p-type semiconductors, SrAg$Ch$F ($Ch$=S, Se and Te). We find soft phonons with low frequency optical branches intersecting the acoustic modes below 50 $cm^{-1}$, indicative of a material with low thermal conductivity. The bands at and near the valence band maxima are highly two dimensional, which leads to high thermopowers even at high carrier concentrations, which is a combination that suggests good thermoelectric performance. These materials may be regarded as bulk realizations of superlattice t…
Half-Heusler compounds usually exhibit relatively higher lattice thermal conductivity that is undesirable for thermoelectric applications. Here we demonstrate by first-principles calculations and Boltzmann transport theory that the BiBaK system is an exception, which has rather low thermal conductivity as evidenced by very small phonon group velocity and relaxation time. Detailed analysis indicates that the heavy Bi and Ba atoms form a cage-like structure, inside which the light K atom rattles with larger atomic displacement parameters. In combination with its good electronic transport propert…
Light Emitting Diodes emits no IR and no UV and their spectrum is fully in the visible part. But LEDs are not cold and all energy losses are thermal losses. The aim of this paper is to prove the feasibility to reuse the thermal losses to produce light through a thermoelectric module. Papers where Peltier modules are included in LEDs systems are all the time used for cooling [1-6]. At the knowledge of the authors, this the first time that thermal losses are used to increase the global efficiency of a high power LED lighting system by using Peltier modules to produce light.
We used density functional and many-body perturbation theory to calculate the quasiparticle band structures and electronic transport parameters of p-type SnSe both for the low-temperature Pnma and high-temperature Cmcm phases. The Pnma phase has an indirect band gap of 0.829 eV while the Cmcm has a direct band gap of 0.464 eV. Both phases exhibit multiple local band extrema within an energy range comparable to the thermal energy of carriers from the global extrema. We calculated the electronic transport coefficients for single-crystal and polycrystalline materials to understand previous experi…
On the basis of detailed first-principles calculations and semi-classical Boltzmann transport, the anisotropic thermoelectric transport properties of Bi$_2$Te$_3$ and Sb$_2$Te$_3$ under strain were investigated. It was found that due to compensation effects of the strain dependent thermopower and electrical conductivity, the related powerfactor will decrease under applied in-plane strain for Bi$_2$Te$_3, while being stable for Sb$_2$Te$_3$. A clear preference for thermoelectric transport under hole-doping, as well as for the in-plane transport direction was found for both tellurides. In contra…
The Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity are two critical quantities to optimize simultaneously in designing thermoelectric materials, and they are determined by the dynamics of carrier scattering. We uncover a new regime where the co-existence at the Fermi level of multiple bands with different effective masses leads to strongly energy-dependent carrier lifetimes due to intrinsic electron-phonon scattering. In this anomalous regime, electrical conductivity decreases with carrier concentration, Seebeck coefficient reverses sign even at high doping, and power factor exhibits an unusu…
The differential effective medium method (DEM) is presented from a physical viewpoint and employed to calculate the lattice thermal conductivity of nano-bulk composites comprising core-shell particles. Extended from the average-T-matrix single-particle approximation, DEM incorporates interparticle effect essential for the study of core-shell nanocomposites (CSN). Interparticle boundary scattering in addition to intraparticle boundary scattering in CSN is found to add to the reduction of thermal conductivity of nanocomposites. Thus, CSN hold the promise of improving the thermoelectric dimension…
We reply to the comment made by Su et al. on "Optimal working conditions for thermoelectric generators with realistic thermal coupling". In particular we justify the efficiency definition used in the main paper.
Using first principles calculations, the use of strain to adjust electronic transport and the resultant thermoelectric (TE) properties is discussed using 2H phase CuAlO2 as a test case. Transparent oxide materials, such as CuAlO2, a p-type transparent conducting oxide (TCO), have recently been studied for high temperature thermoelectric power generators and coolers for waste heat. Given TCO materials with relative ease of fabrication, low cost of materials, and non-toxicity, the ability to tailor them to specific temperature ranges, power needs, and size requirements, through the use of strain…
We have explored electronic and thermoelectric properties of bismuth-based double-perovskite halides Cs2BiAgX6 by using first principles calculations. The calculated indirect bandgaps 2.85 eV and 1.99 eV for Cs2BiAgCl6 and Cs2BiAgBr6, respectively well agree with the measured value (2.77 eV of Cs2BiAgCl6 and 2.19 eV of Cs2BiAgBr6). We have calculated the relaxation time and lattice thermal conductivity by using relaxation time approximation (RTA) within supercell approach. The lattice thermal conductivities for both compounds are remarkably low and the obtained values at 300K for Cs2BiAgCl6 an…
For high efficiency thermoelectric power conversion not only improvement of materials properties but also prediction and synthesis of new thermoelectric materials is needed. Here we have carried out a systematic investigation on thermoelectric performance of newly predicted two dimensional (2D) semiconducting SiS2 and SiSe2 monolayers of group IVA-VIA family using density functional theory (DFT) and Boltzmann transport equation (BTE). Our computed values of lattice thermal conductivity (kph) are ultralow which result very high thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) value of 0.78 (0.80) at 500K in…
A code for calculating the semi-classical thermoelectric and electronic transport properties is described. It uses the Landauer transport theory, which is equivalent to the Boltzmann theory, by introducing a central quantity-the distribution of modes. Its usage enables the so-called band-counting algorithm that can speed up the calculation and offers the potential to rapidly screen DFT band structures. Good agreements are found when comparing the results obtained using band-counting and established Fourier-based interpolation methods.
Efficient thermoelectric materials require a rare and contraindicated combination of materials properties: large electrical conductivity, large Seebeck coefficient, and low thermal conductivity. One strategy to achieve the first two properties is via low-energy electronic bands containing both flat and dispersive parts in different regions of crystal momentum space, known as a pudding-mold band structure. Here, we illustrate that BaPdS$_2$ successfully achieves the pudding-mold band structure, contributing to a large thermoelectric power factor, due to its anisotropic crystal structure contain…
Low-dimensional electronic and glassy phononic transport are two important ingredients of highly-efficient thermoelectric material, from which two branches of the thermoelectric research emerge. One focuses on controlling electronic transport in the low dimension, while the other on multiscale phonon engineering in the bulk. Recent work has benefited much from combining these two approaches, e.g., phonon engineering in low-dimensional materials. Here, we propose to employ the low-dimensional electronic structure in bulk phonon-glass crystal as an alternative way to increase the thermoelectric …
The structural stability, electronic structure, and thermal transport properties of one to six quintuple layers (QLs) of Bi2Se3 are investigated by van der Waals density functional theory and semi-classical Boltzmann theory. The bandgap amounts to 0.41 eV for a single QL and reduces to 0.23 eV when the number of QLs increases to six. A single QL has a significantly higher thermoelectric figure of merit (0.27) than the bulk material (0.10), which can be further enhanced to 0.30 by introducing 2.5% compressive strain. Positive phonon frequencies under strain indicate that the structural stabilit…
The discovery of Heusler alloys has revolutionized the research field of intermetallics due to the ease with which one can derive potential candidates for multifunctional applications. During recent years, many half Heusler alloys have been investigated for their thermoelectric properties. The f electron based rare earth ternary half Heusler compound DyPdBi has its f energy levels located close to the Fermi energy level. Other research efforts have emphasized that such materials have good thermoelectric capabilities. We have explored using first principles the electronic band structure of DyPd…
Thermoelectric materials can be used to construct devices which recycle waste heat into electricity. However, the best known thermoelectrics are based on rare, expensive or even toxic elements, which limits their widespread adoption. To enable deployment on global scales, new classes of effective thermoelectrics are thus required. $\textit{Ab initio}$ models of transport properties can help in the design of new thermoelectrics, but they are still too computationally expensive to be solely relied upon for high-throughput screening in the vast chemical space of all possible candidates. Here, we …
Coupling between heat and electrical currents is at the heart of thermoelectric processes. From a thermal viewpoint this may be seen as an additional thermal flux linked to the appearance of electrical current in a given thermoelectric system. Since this additional flux is associated to the global displacement of charge carriers in the system, it can be qualified as convective in opposition to the conductive part associated with both phonons transport and heat transport by electrons under open circuit condition, as, e.g., in the Wiedemann-Franz relation. In this article we demonstrate that con…
Two-dimensional transition metal di-chalcogenides (TMDCs) have shown great potential as good quality thermoelectric materials at high temperature since past few years due to their suitable band gap tunabilty, low dimensionality and fantastic combination of electrical conductivity and lattice thermal conductivity. Here, a first principles calculations of electronic and thermoelectric performance of two dimensional monolayer HfS 2 , HfSe 2 and their Janus monolayer HfSSe has been performed with the help of density functional theory and Boltzmann transport equation. Thermodynamical stability of a…
The discovery of novel materials for thermoelectric energy conversion has potential to be accelerated by data-driven screening combined with high-throughput calculations. One way to increase the efficacy of successfully choosing a candidate material is through its evaluation using transport descriptors. Using a data-driven screening, we selected 12 potential candidates in the trigonal ABX2 family, followed by charge transport property simulations from first principles. The results suggest that carrier scattering processes in these materials are dominated by ionised impurities and polar optical…
As the energy problem becomes more prominent, researches on thermoelectric (TE) materials have deepened over the past few decades. Low thermal conductivity enables thermoelectric materials better thermal conversion performance. In this study, based on the first principles and phonon Boltzmann transport equation, we studied the thermal conductivities of single-layer WSe2 under several defect conditions using density functional theory (DFT) as implemented in the Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP). The lattice thermal conductivities of WSe2 under six kinds of defect states, i.e., PS, SS-c…
The thermoelectric properties of Sr0.61Ba0.39Nb2O6 ceramics, reduced in different conditions, were investigated in the temperature region from 323 K to 1073 K. The electrical transport behaviors of the samples are dominated by the thermal-activated polaron hopping, the Fermi glass behavior, and the Anderson localized behavior from low temperatures to high temperatures, respectively. The lattice thermal conductivity presents a plateau at high temperatures, indicating a glass-like thermal conduction behavior. Both the thermoelectric power factor and the thermal conductivity increase with the inc…