Grain orientation and transport properties of textured Bi2Te3 alloys

The new material developments in the field of thermoelectrics over the past two decades have resulted in new materials with unique transport properties as well as new synthetic approaches. Enhanced thermoelectric properties of these new materials through thermal conductivity reduction and electrical properties enhancement strategies such as nano-structuring and band engineering have also been reported. Nevertheless, the material system upon which all new thermoelectric material developments are compared with continues to be alloys of Bi2Te3. Approaches for thermoelectric property enhancements for Bi2Te3 alloys have also been undertaken, however, oriented polycrystalline materials continue to be of primary interest for thermoelectric device development. To this end we investigate n and p-type Bi2Te3 alloys provided by II-VI Inc. in order to elucidate the texturing in these materials and their transport properties with texturing. These materials are highly textured, as required in order to maximize the thermoelectric properties, with an 80% enhancement of the thermoelectric properties obtained with texturing.