Investigation of carrier scattering process in polycrystalline bulk bismuth at 300K

A carrier scattering process in polycrystalline bismuth at 300K has been investigated by measuring its Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, magneto-resistivity, Hall coefficient, and Nernst coefficient and solving the Boltzmann equation under the relaxation time and low magnetic field approximations. All measurements were performed using identical bulk bismuth samples; as a result, the scattering process, carrier density, carrier mobility, and Fermi energy were estimated. It was found that acoustic deformation potential scattering was a dominant process even at a temperature of 300 K. In addition, a new measurement method (called a quasi-AC method) was proposed to determine the Nernst coefficient more quickly as compared to the conventional method. It was also shown that the difference in the Nernst coefficients estimated by the two methods affected other material parameters (such as carrier density, mobility, and Fermi energy) only slightly; however, the accurate determination of the Nernst coefficient was required for elucidating the scattering mechanism and estimating the Fermi energy of the studied material. Published by AIP Publishing.