Enhancement of Thermoelectric Efficiency in PbTe by Distortion of the Electronic Density of States

The efficiency of thermoelectric energy converters is limited by the material thermoelectric figure of merit ( zT ). The recent advances in zT based on nanostructures limiting the phonon heat conduction is nearing a fundamental limit: The thermal conductivity cannot be reduced below the amorphous limit. We explored enhancing the Seebeck coefficient through a distortion of the electronic density of states and report a successful implementation...