Electrical and thermal transport properties of binary chalcogenide indium polytelluride crystals

In the present work, single crystals of In2Te5 were grown by the modified Bridge man technique. An investigation has been carried out on the influence of temperature on the electrical conductivity, Hall effect and thermoelectric power. The energy gap calculated to be 0.88 ev, the ionization energy of acceptor was determined to be 0.14 ev. The conductivity throughout the entire temperature range was found to be of P-type. The electrical conductivity, Hall coefficient, carrier concentration ration at room temperature were estimated to be 1.47 x10(-2) (Omega(-1) cm(-1)), 4.6 x10(4) cm(3)/C and 1.3 x10(14) cm(-5) respectively, the electron and hole mobility are found to be 8.53 x10(3) cm(2)/v.sec and 6.78x10(3) cm(2)/v. sec respectively. The effective masses of charge carriers are 1.59 x10(-39) kg and 2.42 x10 (-38) Kg for electrons and holes respectively. The diffusion coefficient for both majority and minority carriers was estimated to be 177.6 cm(2)/sec and 221.3 cm(2)/sec respectively. The diffusion length as well as the relaxation times of holes and electrons are found to be Lp= 4.29x10(-7) cm, L-n= 1.368x10(-7) cm, tau(p) = 1.63 x 10(-15) sec and tau(n) = 8.4 x10(-17) sec respectively. In addition to these pronounced parameters, the efficiency of the thermoelectric element (figure of merit) was checked, which leads to better application in many fields keywords; crystal growth, In2Te5, electrical conductivity, Hall effect, thermoelectric power. [Nagat A.T., S.A.Al-gahtani, F.S..Shokr, S.E. AlGarni, S.R. Al-Harbi and K. A.Quhim. Electrical and thermal transport properties of binary chalcogenide indium polytelluride crystals. Life Sci J 2012;9(4):1495-1499] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 227