Journal
ADVANCED SCIENCE
Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/advs.201902409
Keywords
bandgap; electronic structure; half-Heusler compounds; thermoelectric properties
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) [392228380]
- ERC [291472, 742068]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51761135127]
- NCCR-MARVEL - Swiss National Science Foundation
- DFG [DR228/51]
- National Science Foundation [1541959]
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Accurate determination of the intrinsic electronic structure of thermoelectric materials is a prerequisite for utilizing an electronic band engineering strategy to improve their thermoelectric performance. Herein, with high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), the intrinsic electronic structure of the 3D half-Heusler thermoelectric material ZrNiSn is revealed. An unexpectedly large intrinsic bandgap is directly observed by ARPES and is further confirmed by electrical and optical measurements and first-principles calculations. Moreover, a large anisotropic conduction band with an anisotropic factor of 6 is identified by ARPES and attributed to be one of the most important reasons leading to the high thermoelectric performance of ZrNiSn. These successful findings rely on the grown high-quality single crystals, which have fewer Ni interstitial defects and negligible in-gap states on the electronic structure. This work demonstrates a realistic paradigm to investigate the electronic structure of 3D solid materials by using ARPES and provides new insights into the intrinsic electronic structure of the half-Heusler system benefiting further optimization of thermoelectric performance.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available