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Published September 2011 | public
Journal Article

Zone Leveling Crystal Growth of Thermoelectric PbTe Alloys with Sb_(2)Te_3 Widmanstätten Precipitates

Abstract

Unidirectional solidification of PbTe-rich alloys in the pseudobinary PbTe-Sb_(2)Te_3 system using the zone leveling technique enables the production of large regions of homogeneous solid solutions for the formation of precipitate nanocomposites as compared with Bridgman solidification. (PbTe)_(0.940)(Sb_(2)Te_3)_(0.060) and (PbTe)_(0.952)(Sb_(2)Te_3)_(0.048) alloys were successfully grown using (PbTe)_(0.4)(Sb_(2)Te_3)_(0.6) and (PbTe)_(0.461)(Sb_(2)Te_3)_(0.539) as seed alloys, respectively, with 1 mm h^(–1) withdrawal velocity. In the unidirectionally solidified regions of both alloys, Widmanstatten precipitates are formed due to the decrease in solubility of Sb_(2)Te_3 in PbTe. To determine the compositions of the seed alloys for the zone leveling experiments, the solute distribution in solidification in the PbTe-richer part of the pseudobinary PbTe-Sb_(2)Te_3 system has been examined from the concentration profiles in the samples unidirectionally solidified by the Bridgman method.

Additional Information

© 2011 American Chemical Society. Received: June 15, 2011; revised: July 26, 2011; published: August 3, 2011. This work was funded by the PRESTO program (PRESTO: Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology) of Japan Science and Technology Agency. Microscopy facilities are supported by NSF CSEM MRSEC at Caltech.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 24, 2023