No abstract

No abstract

A detailed study of the variation of the thermoelectric figure of merit of Si–Ge alloys with alloy composition, temperature and carrier density is the subject matter of this paper. Such a study is of particular interest at higher temperatures when minority carrier effects (MCEs) start to play a significant role in degrading the performance, thereby setting an upper limit of high temperature application. Alloys rich in silicon content are of greater interest and attention for the obvious reason that silicon, due to its large energy gap, is important in pushing the MCE to higher temperatures. The purpose of the present paper is to examine in depth all those processes that tend to degrade the material performance.

No abstract