This work was carried out within the project "Thermoelectric Oxides for High Temperature Waste Heat Recovery" (THERMEL), funded by the RENERGI programme of the Norwegian Research Council. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisors, Terje Finstad and Truls Norby, for allowing me to work independently and develop my own ideas, but providing interest, advice, and guidance, whenever I got lost on the way. I am also grateful for the privilege to work in the social, helpful, and inspiring environment of the FASE group. Thanks to all previous and present members for making this a nice place to work and-of course-for uncounted coffee breaks, foosball matches, and social gatherings. Especially, I thank Harald Fjeld, for being a great office mate, patient teacher of (defect) chemistry, and omniscient lab-encyclopedia. It is safe to say that this thesis would have looked different without you! A big thank you also to our cohabitants from the structural physics group, especially Ole-Bjørn Karlsen and Kjetil Valset, for providing practical assistance and help. Simone Casolo deserves my deep respect for patiently enduring my endless questions around his DFT results. My stay in the group of Sean Li in Sydney was pleasant, interesting, and scientifically productive. I'd like to thank all the people I met there, who helped making me feel at home at the other side of the world within only three months. I am also happy to have met Leyre Sagarna and Christophe Heinrich on conferences, sharing the experience and struggles of being a PhD-student and resulting in minicollaborations. Further, I am deeply indebted to my parents and family for almost three decades of unconditional support and advice. Finally, I thank my friends and especially Tina for simply being there. Oslo, March 2014 Matthias Schrade iii Here, α is the Seebeck coefficient, ρ the electrical resistivity, and κ the thermal conductivity. The index n (or p) indicates the n-type (or p-type) leg. The effective figure of merit Z is usually close to the average of the individual figures of merit z of the p-and n-materials. Thus, the by far most reported number in thermoelectric