Comments on the thermoelectric properties of pressure-sintered Si 0.8Ge0.2 thermoelectric alloys

Abstract

The recent results of C. B. Vining, W. Laskow, J. O. Hanson, R. R. Van der Beck, and P. D. Gorsuch [J. Appl. Phys. 69, 4333 (1991)] regarding the effect of grain size on the thermoelectric figure of merit of heavily doped p-type silicon germanium alloys are compared to earlier results on similar materials. The data confirm that the room-temperature figure-of-merit is significantly increased in materials with a small grain size.