Tailoring of Electronic Structure and Thermoelectric Properties of a Topological Crystalline Insulator by Chemical Doping.
Topological crystalline insulators (TCIs) are a new quantum state of matter in which linearly dispersed metallic surface states are protected by crystal mirror symmetry. Owing to its vanishingly small bulk band gap, a TCI like Pb0.6 Sn0.4 Te has poor thermoelectric properties. Breaking of crystal symmetry can widen the band gap of TCI. While breaking of mirror symmetry in a TCI has been mostly explored by various physical perturbation techniques, chemical doping, which may also alter the electronic structure of TCI by perturbing the local mirror symmetry, has not yet been explored. Herein, we demonstrate that Na doping in Pb0.6 Sn0.4 Te locally breaks the crystal symmetry and opens up a bulk electronic band gap, which is confirmed by direct electronic absorption spectroscopy and electronic structure calculations. Na doping in Pb0.6 Sn0.4 Te increases p-type carrier concentration and suppresses the bipolar conduction (by widening the band gap), which collectively gives rise to a promising zT of 1 at 856 K for Pb0.58 Sn0.40 Na0.02 Te. Breaking of crystal symmetry by chemical doping widens the bulk band gap in TCI, which uncovers a route to improve TCI for thermoelectric applications.
New Chemistry Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Jakkur P.O., Bangalore (India) http://www.jncasr.ac.in/kanishka/
Subhajit
S
Roychowdhury
Theoretical Science Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Jakkur P.O., Bangalore 560 064 (India).
U Sandhya
US
Shenoy
Theoretical Science Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Jakkur P.O., Bangalore 560 064 (India).
Umesh V
UV
Waghmare
New Chemistry Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Jakkur P.O., Bangalore (India) http://www.jncasr.ac.in/kanishka/. kanishka@jncasr.ac.in.
Kanishka
K
Biswas
chemical doping; crystal symmetry breaking; electronic structures; thermoelectrics; topological crystalline insulator