Thermoelectric power in single crystal microwires of PbTe.

Abstract

Results of the measurements of thermoelectric properties of thin semiconductor mi- crowires of PbTe (d = 5 ÷ 100 μm) obtained from solution melt by the quartz capillary filling followed by material crystallization are presented for the temperature region 4.2 ÷ 300 K. For the all samples, a sharp peak at the temperature 30 TK ≈ is observed. The value of this peak depends on diameter of microwires. It is supposed that at the temperatures below 40 K the total thermoelectric power is determined to a certain degree by the phonon drag of holes and dependence of the thermoelectric power value is caused by the size effect.