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Vacancy-mediated anomalous phononic and electronic transport in defective half-Heusler ZrNiBi.

Authors :
Ren W
Xue W
Guo S
He R
Deng L
Song S
Sotnikov A
Nielsch K
van den Brink J
Gao G
Chen S
Han Y
Wu J
Chu CW
Wang Z
Wang Y
Ren Z
Source :
Nature communications [Nat Commun] 2023 Aug 05; Vol. 14 (1), pp. 4722. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Aug 05.
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

Studies of vacancy-mediated anomalous transport properties have flourished in diverse fields since these properties endow solid materials with fascinating photoelectric, ferroelectric, and spin-electric behaviors. Although phononic and electronic transport underpin the physical origin of thermoelectrics, vacancy has only played a stereotyped role as a scattering center. Here we reveal the multifunctionality of vacancy in tailoring the transport properties of an emerging thermoelectric material, defective n-type ZrNiBi. The phonon kinetic process is mediated in both propagating velocity and relaxation time: vacancy-induced local soft bonds lower the phonon velocity while acoustic-optical phonon coupling, anisotropic vibrations, and point-defect scattering induced by vacancy shorten the relaxation time. Consequently, defective ZrNiBi exhibits the lowest lattice thermal conductivity among the half-Heusler family. In addition, a vacancy-induced flat band features prominently in its electronic band structure, which is not only desirable for electron-sufficient thermoelectric materials but also interesting for driving other novel physical phenomena. Finally, better thermoelectric performance is established in a ZrNiBi-based compound. Our findings not only demonstrate a promising thermoelectric material but also promote the fascinating vacancy-mediated anomalous transport properties for multidisciplinary explorations.<br /> (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2041-1723
Volume :
14
Issue :
1
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Nature communications
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
37543679
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40492-7