Synthesis and thermoelectric properties of Bi-doped SnSe thin films

Bi doped n-type SnSe thin films were prepared by chemical vapor deposition(CVD)and their structure and thermoelectric properties were studied.The x-ray diffraction patterns,x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,and microscopic images show that the prepared SnSe thin films were composed of pure SnSe crystals.The Seebeck coefficients of the Bi-doped SnSe were greatly improved compared to that of undoped SnSe thin films.Specifically,Sn_(0.99)Bi_(0.01)Se thin film exhibited a Seebeck coefficient of905.8μV·K^(-1) at 600 K,much higher than 285.5μV·K^(-1) of undoped SnSe thin film.Further first-principles calculations reveal that the enhancement of the thermoelectric properties can be explained mainly by the Fermi level lifting and the carrier pockets increasing near the Fermi level due to Bi doping in the SnSe samples.Our results suggest the potentials of the Bi-doped SnSe thin films in thermoelectric applications.

Mn-doped SiGe thin films grown by UHV/CVD with room-temperature ferromagnetism and high hole mobility

In this work,silicon-germanium(SiGe)thin films are epitaxially grown on Ge substrates by ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition and then doped with Mn element by ion-implantation and subsequent rapid thermal annealing(RTA).The characterizations show that the epitaxial SiGe thin films are single-crystalline with uniform tensile strain and then become polycrystalline after the ion implantation and following RTA.The magnetization measurements indicate that the annealed thin films exhibit Mn concentration-dependent ferromagnetism up to 309 K and the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism characterizations reveal the spin and orbital magnetic moments from the substitutional Mn element.To minimize the influence of anomalous Hall effect,magneto-transport measurements at a high magnetic field up to 31 T at 300 K are performed to obtain the hole mobility,which reaches a record-high value of~1230 cm^(2)V^(-1)s^(-1),owing to the crystalline quality and tensile strain-induced energy band modulation of the samples.The first demonstration of Mn-doped SiGe thin films with roomtemperature ferromagnetism and high carrier mobility may pave the way for practical semiconductor spintronic applications.