Dresden 2014 – scientific programme

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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 42: Thermoelectric Materials

DS 42.3: Talk

Thursday, April 3, 2014, 15:30–15:45, CHE 89

Thermoelectric transport in Sb₂Te₃ thin films — •Nicki F. Hinsche¹, Florian Rittweger², Tomáš Rauch¹, Jürgen Henk¹, and Ingrid Mertig^1,2 — ¹Martin-Luther-Universität, Institut für Physik, Von-Seckendorff-Platz 1, DE-06120 Halle — ²Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, Weinberg 2, DE-06120 Halle

Bulk chalcogenides, e.g. Bi₂Te₃ and Sb₂Te₃, as well as related heterostructures and ternary alloys are well known as efficient thermoelectric materials [1,2]. Today these chalcogenides are known to be strong topological insulators, i.e. their bulk is insulating, while their surface is metallic due to the presence of robust gapless surface states [3]. While the spin structure and the low-temperature electrical transport gained much attention, the physics at room temperature and the thermoelectric transport is still under debate. To contribute on this, we studied the electronic structure of Sb₂Te₃ thin films, with 3-36nm thickness, with a fully relativistic screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green’s function method. The thermoelectric transport properties were calculated within the relaxation time approximation of the Boltzmann theory. The influence of thickness, temperature and doping on the thermoelectric transport properties of the surface states were analysed in detail.

[1] T. M. Tritt et al., MRS bulletin 31, 188 (2006); [2] N. F. Hinsche et al., Phys. Rev. B 86, 085323 (2012); [3] H. Zhang et al., Nature Phys. 5, 438 (2009);