Soft phonon modes from off-center Ge atoms lead to ultralow thermal conductivity and superior thermoelectric performance in n-type PbSe–GeSe

• Main Authors: Luo, Zhong-Zhen, Hao, Shiqiang, Zhang, Xiaomi, Hua, Xia, Cai, Songting, Tan, Gangjian, Bailey, Trevor P., Ma, Runchu, Uher, Ctirad, Wolverton, Chris, Dravid, Vinayak P., Yan, Qingyu, Kanatzidis, Mercouri G.
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials; PbSe; PbTe
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/143787
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Historically PbSe has underperformed PbTe in thermoelectric efficiency and has been regarded as an inferior relative to its telluride congener. However, the fifty-fold greater natural abundance of Se relative to Te makes PbSe appealing as a thermoelectric material. We report that the n-type GeSe-all...