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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 103 » Issue 14
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 145502 (2009) [4 pages]

Microstructure and a Nucleation Mechanism for Nanoprecipitates in PbTe-AgSbTe2

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Xuezhi Ke1,2,*, Changfeng Chen1,†, Jihui Yang3,‡, Lijun Wu4, Juan Zhou4, Qiang Li4, Yimei Zhu4,§, and P. R. C. Kent5
1Department of Physics and High Pressure Science and Engineering Center, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154, USA
2Department of Physics and Institute of Theoretical Physics, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
3Materials and Processes Laboratory, General Motors R&D Center, Warren, Michigan 48090, USA
4Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
5Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA

Received 1 October 2008; published 2 October 2009

Many recent advances in thermoelectric (TE) materials are attributed to their nanoscale constituents. Determination of the nanocomposite structures has represented a major experimental and computational challenge and eluded previous attempts. Here we present the first atomically resolved structures of high performance TE material PbTe-AgSbTe2 by transmission electron microscopy imaging and density functional theory calculations. The results establish an accurate structural characterization for PbTe-AgSbTe2 and identify the interplay of electric dipolar interactions and strain fields as the driving mechanism for nanoprecipitate nucleation and aggregation.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.145502
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.145502
PACS:
61.46.−w, 62.23.Pq, 71.15.Nc, 72.15.Jf

*xzke@phy.ecnu.edu.cn

†chen@physics.unlv.edu

‡jihui.yang@gm.com

§zhu@bnl.gov

 
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