Influence on Cr and Ni doping on PbTe local structural properties

Abstract

© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Structural aspects of Cr and Ni incorporation into the PbTe lattice are studied by means of Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS). EXAFS measurements enabled to get exact information on Pb and Te local structural features and their thermal evolution. The obtained results also revealed that by distorting their local environment, impurity atoms (Cr, Ni) add to high inherent disorder already present in the host PbTe. Larger anharmonicity of the Pb–Te bond and larger atomic thermal parameters observed in PbTe(Cr, Ni) could be of interest for thermoelectronics applications since they are both expected to reduce the thermal conductivity.