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Article

Self-Assembled Nanometer Lamellae of Thermoelectric PbTe and Sb₂Te₃ with Epitaxy-like Interfaces

Teruyuki Ikeda,^† Lauren A. Collins,^† Vilupanur A. Ravi,^‡ Franck S. Gascoin,^† Sossina M. Haile,^† and G. Jeffrey Snyder*^†

Materials Science, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91125, and Chemical and Materials Engineering, California State Polytechnic University, 3801 West Temple Avenue, Pomona, California 91768

Chem. Mater., 2007, 19 (4), pp 763–767

DOI: 10.1021/cm062121p

Publication Date (Web): January 17, 2007

†

California Institute of Technology.

‡

California State Polytechnic University.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jsnyder@ caltech.edu.

Abstract

Utilizing the decomposition of metastable Pb₂Sb₆Te₁₁ into PbTe and Sb₂Te₃, we produced a layered (lamellar) microstructure of PbTe and Sb₂Te₃ in which the interlamellar spacing can be controlled by the temperature and time of the decomposition process. Adjacent PbTe and Sb₂Te₃ lamellae are crystallographically oriented, indicating high-quality epitaxy-like interfaces. Average lamellar spacings as small as 180 nm are observed, corresponding to a PbTe layer thickness of 40 nm. These nanoscale multilayers, formed by bulk processing, resemble thin-film superlattice thermoelectric materials, which have shown exceptionally high thermoelectric efficiency.

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