Growth of GaSb Crystal and Evaluation of Its Thermoelectric Properties Along (111) Plane.

In this study, group III–V compound semiconductor gallium antimonide (GaSb) crystal is grown by the vertical Bridgman technique. A (111) twinning is generated in the as‐grown crystal due to its polarity behavior as the GaSb crystal has a zinc‐blende structure. Hall effect measurements illustrate that the as‐grown GaSb crystal has n‐type semiconductor behavior among the whole temperature range, and the carrier concentration reaches the highest value of 3.27 × 1018 cm3 at 900 K. Thermoelectric behavior of GaSb crystals along the (111) plane is investigated. It shows the lowest electrical conductivity of 53.2 S cm−1 and the highest Seebeck coefficient of −470.0 µV K−1 at 700 K. However, the largest power factor of 13.7 µW cm K−2 takes place at 600 K. For thermal conductivity (k), the k value always decreases with increasing temperature, and the lowest k that occurred at around 900 K is about 7.44 W m−1 K−1. Finally, a maximum figure of merit of 0.082 is obtained at 700 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]