Nature Communications (Apr 2019)

Intrinsic anharmonic localization in thermoelectric PbSe

  • M. E. Manley,
  • O. Hellman,
  • N. Shulumba,
  • A. F. May,
  • P. J. Stonaha,
  • J. W. Lynn,
  • V. O. Garlea,
  • A. Alatas,
  • R. P. Hermann,
  • J. D. Budai,
  • H. Wang,
  • B. C. Sales,
  • A. J. Minnich

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09921-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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To optimize the performance of lead chalcogenides for thermoelectric applications, strategies to further reduce the crystal’s thermal conductivity is required. Here, the authors discover anharmonic localized vibrations in PbSe crystals for optimizing the crystal’s vibrational transport properties.