Reduction of the thermal conductivity of the thermoelectric material ScN by Nb alloying

ScN-rich (Sc,Nb)N solid solution thin films have been studied, motivated by the promising thermoelectric properties of ScN-based materials. Cubic Sc1-xNbxN films for 0 <= x <= 0.25 were epitaxially grown by DC reactive magnetron sputtering on a c-plane sapphire substrate and oriented along the (111) orientation. The crystal structure, morphology, thermal conductivity, and thermoelectric and electrical properties were investigated. The ScN reference film exhibited a Seebeck coefficient of -45 mu V/K and a power factor of 6 x 10(-4) W/m K-2 at 750K. Estimated from room temperature Hall measurements, all samples exhibit a high carrier density of the order of 10(21) cm(-3). Inclusion of heavy transition metals into ScN enables the reduction in thermal conductivity by an increase in phonon scattering. The Nb inserted ScN thin films exhibited a thermal conductivity lower than the value of the ScN reference (10.5W m(-1) K-1) down to a minimum value of 2.2 Wm(-1) K-1. Insertion of Nb into ScN thus resulted in a reduction in thermal conductivity by a factor of similar to 5 due to the mass contrast in ScN, which increases the phonon scattering in the material. Published by AIP Publishing.