Structural, thermal, optical, and photoacoustic study of nanocrystalline Bi2Te3 produced by mechanical alloying

Nanocrystalline Bi2Te3 was produced by mechanical alloying and its properties were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) x-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy (RS), and photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS). Combining the XRD and RS results, the volume fraction of the interfacial component in as-milled and annealed samples was estimated. The PAS results suggest that the contribution of the interfacial component to the thermal diffusivity of nanostructured Bi2Te3 is very significant. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3520658]