• Nashchekina, Olga
• Doroshenko, A. N.
• Martynova, E. V.
• Shelest, T. N.
• Menshov, Yu. V.
• Rogacheva, E. I.

Abstract

The room-temperature dependences of microhardness H, electrical conductivity σ, the Seebeck coefficient S, and thermoelectric power factor P on composition of Bi₂(Te₁₋ₓSeₓ)₃ solid solutions were measured in the concentration range x = 0 - 0.07. In the intervals x = 0.0075 - 0.0175 and x = 0.025 - 0.035, an anomalous decrease in H and S and increase in σ with increasing x were observed. The first concentration-dependent anomaly was attributed to critical phenomena, accompanying a percolation-type phase transition. The percolation threshold xc and the radius of deformation spheres R₀ around Se impurity atoms were estimated. The second anomaly is assumed to be connected with a short-range ordering in the solid solution. The non-monotonic character of the dependences of H on the load on an indenter, whose behavior depended on the impurity concentration, was attributed to the interaction of the deformation fields created by dislocations and impurity atoms.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• phase
• phase transition
• dislocation
• electrical conductivity
• impurity concentration