Lattice hardening due to vacancy diffusion in (GeTe)mSb2Te3 alloys

Peng, Wanyue; Smiadak, David M.; Boehlert, Michael G.; Mather, Spencer; Williams, Jared B.; Morelli, Donald T.; Zevalkink, Alexandra

doi:10.1063/1.5108659

Title: Lattice hardening due to vacancy diffusion in (GeTe)_mSb₂Te₃ alloys

Journal Article · 01 August 2019 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5108659 · OSTI ID:1596864

Peng, Wanyue ^[1]; Smiadak, David M. ^[1];

^[1];

^[1]; Williams, Jared B. ^[1]; Morelli, Donald T. ^[1]; Zevalkink, Alexandra ^[1]

Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)

GeTe-Sb $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$ alloys have been widely studied for use in rewritable media, and in recent years, they have emerged as excellent thermoelectric materials, with reports of $z T > 2$ for Ge-rich compositions. GeTe-Sb $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$ alloys exhibit a solid-state phase transition from a layered structure with rhombohedral symmetry to a cubic rocksalt structure, which plays an important role in their thermoelectric behavior. In this work, we investigate the impact of the phase transition on the thermal expansion and elastic moduli of (GeTe) $_{17}$ Sb $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$ using high-temperature X-ray diffraction and resonant ultrasound spectroscopy. The high-temperature elastic moduli of GeTe, Sb₂Te₃, and Bi $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$ were also measured for comparison. Although it is typical for materials to soften with increasing temperature due to thermal expansion, our study reveals anomalous hardening of the elastic moduli in (GeTe) $_{17}$ Sb $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$ at temperatures below the phase transition, followed by further hardening at the transition temperature. In contrast, the elastic moduli of GeTe, Sb $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$ , and Bi $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$ soften with increasing temperature. We attribute the anomalous hardening of (GeTe) $_{17}$ Sb $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$ to the gradual vacancy diffusion accompanying the transition from a layered to a cubic structure. The stiffening elastic moduli lead to increasing speed of sound, which impacts the lattice thermal conductivity by flattening the temperature dependence.

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Research Organization:: Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0019252; SC0001054

OSTI ID:: 1596864

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1545964

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 126, Issue 5; ISSN 0021-8979

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 6 works

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