Thermoelectric properties of HPHT sintered In-doped Pb0.5Sn0.5Te

The thermoelectric properties of Pb0.5Sn0.5Te doped with In at 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0×1019/cm3 and sintered at a high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) of 4.0 GPa and 800 or 900 °C, respectively, have been studied. All samples show p-type semiconducting behavior with positive thermopower. We find that HPHT sintering of conventionally synthesized materials improves their thermoelectric properties. The highest power factor is obtained for In doping of 2.0×1019/cm3 with 13.5 μW/cm K2 at 230 °C. The corresponding figure of merit is 1.43×10−3/K. This represents a twofold improvement in thermoelectric figure of merit, compared to the conventionally sintered materials reported in the literature. When exposed to 400 °C for 10 days, samples sintered at 900 °C exhibit more stable thermoelectric properties, while the properties of those sintered at 800 °C deteriorated. These results demonstrate that HPHT sintering is a viable and controllable way of tuning the thermoelectric properties of PbTe-based materials.