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Non-symmorphic materials have recently been predicted to exhibit many different exotic features in their electronic structures. These originate from forced band degeneracies caused by the non-symmorphic symmetry, which not only creates the possibility to realize Dirac semimetals, but also recently resulted in the prediction of novel quasiparticles beyond the usual Dirac, Weyl or Majorana fermions, which can only exist in the solid state. Experimental realization of non-symmorphic materials that have the Fermi level located at the degenerate point is difficult, however, due to the requirement of an odd band filling. In order to investigate the effect of forced band degeneracies on the transport behavior, a material that has such a degeneracy at or close to the Fermi level is desired. Here, we show with angular resolved photoemission experiments supported by density functional calculations, that ZrSiTe hosts several fourfold degenerate Dirac crossings at the X point, resulting from non-symmorphic symmetry. These crossings form a Dirac line node along XR, which is located almost directly at the Fermi level and shows almost no dispersion in energy. ZrSiTe is thus the first real material that allows for transport measurements investigating Dirac fermions that originate from non-symmorphic symmetry., 13 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in New Journal of Physics

Here we report for the first time on a complete simulation assisted "material to module" development of a high performance thermoelectric generator (TEG) based on the combination of a phase change material and established thermoelectrics yielding the compositions (1 - x)(GeTe)x(Bi2Se0.2Te2.8). For the generator design our approach for benchmarking thermoelectric materials is demonstrated which is not restricted to the determination of the intrinsically imprecise ZT value but includes the implementation of the material into a TEG. This approach is enabling a much more reliable benchmarking of thermoelectric materials for TEG application. Furthermore we analyzed the microstructure and performance close to in-operandi conditions for two different compositions in order to demonstrate the sensi tivity of the material against processing and thermal cycling. For x = 0.038 the microstructure of the as-prepared material remains unchanged, consequently, excellent and stable thermoelectric performance as prerequisites for TEG production was obtained. For x = 0.063 we observed strain phenomena for the pristine state which are released by the formation of planar defects after thermal cycling. Consequently the thermoelectric performance degrades significantly. These findings highlight a complication for deriving the correlation of microstructure and properties of thermoelectric materials in general.

A group of solids with the general composition A(2)In(12)Q(19) (A = K, Tl, NH4; Q = Se, Te) is characterized by combined Xray single-crystal and high-resolution transmission-electron microscopy (HRTEM). Similar nanosize domains with variable sizes and complex internal structures are common to all three compounds. Although a partial ordering of domains for the bulk of K2In12Se19 is dominating, the observed ordering patterns in microdomains range from total random orientation to a pattern with a ninefold superstucture (rare precursor phase not stable under HRTEM conditions). In spite of testing various synthesis conditions it was not possible to avoid these unusual structural features for K2In12Se19, which are apparently intrinsic. The formation of significantly larger domains is observed for K2In12Se19-xTex and K2-yTlyIn12Se19 and results in a twofold superstructure that can be observed with X-ray diffraction also on a macroscopic scale. (NH4)(2)-In12Se19 is a special case where an initial weak ordering is observed that is characterized by ring :x-ray reflections forming hexagons around certain reciprocal lattice positions. This pattern has apparent similarities to K2In12Se19 but is not stable in the HRTEM. Instead, it disappears rapidly and is finally replaced by a twofold superstructure similar to K2In12Se19-xTex and K2-yTlyIn12Se19. The reason was identified as a combined process of domain. broadening and NH3 evaporation. As observed for K2In12Se19 at T > 473 K, the superstructure reflections disappear. Surprisingly, the pseudobinary phase In(2)Q(3) (Q: chalcogen) shows strong structural similarities to K2In12Se19 with respect to the internal structure of the nanodomains. Their three-dimensional arrangement, however, and the resulting superstructure are closer related to K2In12Se19-xTex and K2-yTlyIn12Se19 European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry