Features of conductivity of the intermetallic semiconductor n-ZrNiSn heavily doped with a Bi donor impurity

The crystal structure, distribution of the electron density of states, and the energy, kinetic, and magnetic properties of the intermetallic semiconductor n-ZrNiSn heavily doped with a Bi donor impurity have been investigated in the ranges T = 80-400 K, N (D) (Bi) a parts per thousand 9.5 x 10(19)cm(-3) (x = 0.005)-1.9 x 10(21) cm(-3) (x = 0.10), and H a parts per thousand currency sign 0.5 T. It has been established that such doping generates two types of donor-like structural defects in the crystal, which manifest themselves in both the dependence of the variation in the unit cell parameter a(x) and temperature dependence of resistivity ln rho(1/T) of ZrNiSn1 - x Bi (x) (x = 0.005). It is shown that ZrNiSn1 - x Bi (x) is a new promising thermoelectric material, which converts thermal energy to electric energy much more effectively as compared to n-ZrNiSn. The results obtained are discussed within the Shklovskii-Efros model of a heavily doped and strongly compensated semiconductor.