Rapid Solidification Brings Ultralow Thermal Conductivity and Superior Thermoelectric Performance for Intrinsic GeTe Alloy
- 1School of Physical Science and Technology Northwestern Polytechnical University Xi'an People's Republic of China
Abstract
Intrinsic GeTe suffers from excessively high carrier concentrations caused by Ge vacancies and limitations in phase regulation, which constrain further enhancement of its thermoelectric performance. In this work, rapid solidification with glass fluxing techniques is employed to achieve a large undercooling of ΔT = 112–122 K in the GeTe alloy for the first time. By Ge enrichment, the carrier concentration is tuned to an optimal range of 5.7 × 1020 cm−3 and the carrier mobility is enhanced to 75.3 cm2 V−1 s−1. The stoichiometric GeTe alloy retains a portion of the high‐temperature cubic phase at room temperature, forming a rhombohedral‐cubic (α+β) uniform dual‐phase structure with a specific crystallographic orientation. DFT calculations of the band structure, density of states, and phonon spectrum reveal the influence of the α+β structure on electrical transport and thermal diffusion. This unique microstructure combined with multiscale defect engineering enables a high figure of merit (zT) of 1.32 at 700 K for the Ge1.03Te alloy, with a total processing time of less than 2 h, significantly improving the preparation efficiency. This work demonstrates that liquid undercooling technology is an efficient preparation method for effectively regulating the phase composition and microstructure of thermoelectric alloys.
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BibTeX
@article{liu2026rapid,
title = {{Rapid Solidification Brings Ultralow Thermal Conductivity and Superior Thermoelectric Performance for Intrinsic GeTe Alloy}},
author = {Guanghui Liu and Shuangxiong Ma and Xintong Zhang and Dou Li and Weili Wang},
journal = {Advanced Science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1002/advs.78267},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.78267},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Rapid Solidification Brings Ultralow Thermal Conductivity and Superior Thermoelectric Performance for Intrinsic GeTe Alloy
AU - Guanghui Liu
AU - Shuangxiong Ma
AU - Xintong Zhang
AU - Dou Li
AU - Weili Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/27
JO - Advanced Science
DO - 10.1002/advs.78267
UR - https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.78267
AB - Intrinsic GeTe suffers from excessively high carrier concentrations caused by Ge vacancies and limitations in phase regulation, which constrain further enhancement of its thermoelectric performance. In this work, rapid solidification with glass fluxing techniques is employed to achieve a large undercooling of ΔT = 112–122 K in the GeTe alloy for the first time. By Ge enrichment, the carrier concentration is tuned to an optimal range of 5.7 × 1020 cm−3 and the carrier mobility is enhanced to 75.3 cm2 V−1 s−1. The stoichiometric GeTe alloy retains a portion of the high‐temperature cubic phase at room temperature, forming a rhombohedral‐cubic (α+β) uniform dual‐phase structure with a specific crystallographic orientation. DFT calculations of the band structure, density of states, and phonon spectrum reveal the influence of the α+β structure on electrical transport and thermal diffusion. This unique microstructure combined with multiscale defect engineering enables a high figure of merit (zT) of 1.32 at 700 K for the Ge1.03Te alloy, with a total processing time of less than 2 h, significantly improving the preparation efficiency. This work demonstrates that liquid undercooling technology is an efficient preparation method for effectively regulating the phase composition and microstructure of thermoelectric alloys.
SN - 2198-3844
ER -