Thermoelectric power and structural properties in two-phase Sn/SnTe alloys

Abstract

The influence of the metallurgical states of solid solutions on the thermoelectric power (TEP) measurements, due to electron scattering by crystalline defect, has been well studied. Yet, second phase formation influence on TEP has been neglected and was mainly discussed theoretically. Here we show a correlation between measured TEP and the microstructure of two-phase Sn/Te alloys. The TEP values were fitted to a coupled model based on the Bergman-Levy and the general effective medium equations and shown to conform to the lower bound region, corresponds to a parallel addition configuration. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.