Proton irradiation effect on thermoelectric properties of nanostructured n-type half-Heusler Hf0.25Zr0.75NiSn0.99Sb0.01 Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Thermoelectric properties of nanostructured half-Heusler Hf0.25Zr0.75NiSn0.99Sb0.01 were characterized before and after 2.5MeV proton irradiation. A unique high-sensitivity scanning thermal microprobe was used to simultaneously map the irradiation effect on thermal conductivity and Seebeck coefficient with spatial resolution less than 2m. The thermal conductivity profile along the depth from the irradiated surface shows excellent agreement with the irradiation-induced damage profile from simulation. The Seebeck coefficient was unaffected while both electrical and thermal conductivities decreased by 24%, resulting in no change in thermoelectric figure of merit ZT. Reductions in thermal and electrical conductivities are attributed to irradiation-induced defects that act as scattering sources for phonons and charge carriers.

published proceedings

  • APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS

author list (cited authors)

  • Kempf, N., Karthik, C., Jaques, B. J., Gigax, J., Shao, L., Butt, D. P., ... Zhang, Y.

citation count

  • 8

complete list of authors

  • Kempf, Nicholas||Karthik, Chinnathambi||Jaques, Brian J||Gigax, Jonathan||Shao, Lin||Butt, Darryl P||He, Ran||Wang, Dezhi||Ren, Zhifeng||Zhang, Yanliang

publication date

  • June 2018