V. A. Romaka, P. Rogl, Yu. V. Stadnyk, E. K. Hlil, V. V. Romaka, A. M. Horyn, “Features of conductivity of the intermetallic semiconductor <nobr>$n$</nobr>-ZrNiSn heavily doped with a Bi donor impurity”, Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, 2012, Volume 46, Issue 7,Pages <nobr>910

This article is cited in 7 papers

Electronic properties of semiconductors

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

V. A. Romaka^a, P. Rogl^b, Yu. V. Stadnyk^c, E. K. Hlil^d, V. V. Romaka^e, A. M. Horyn^c

^a Ya. S. Pidstryhach Institute for Applied Problems of Mechanics and Mathematics, NAS Ukraine, L'vov
^b University of Vienna
^c Ivan Franko National University of L'viv
^d Institut NÉEL, CNRS and Université Joseph Fourier
^e Lviv Polytechnic National University

Abstract: 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, $N^{\mathrm{Bi}}_D\approx$ 9.5 $\times$ 10$^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$ ($x$ = 0.005)–1.9 $\times$ 10$^{21}$ cm$^{-3}$ ($x$ = 0.10), and $H\le$ 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 ZrNiSn$_{1-x}$Bi$_x$ ($x$ = 0.005). It is shown that ZrNiSn$_{1-x}$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.

Received: 21.11.2011
Accepted: 28.11.2011