ABSTRACT
Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3)-based alloys have been extensively employed in energy harvesting and refrigeration applications for decades. However, commercially produced Bi2Te3-based alloys using the zone-melting (ZM) technique often encounter challenges such as insufficient mechanical properties and susceptibility to cracking, particularly in n-type Bi2Te3-based alloys, which severely limit the application scenarios for bismuth telluride devices. In this work, we seek to enhance the mechanical properties of n-type Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 alloys while preserving their thermoelectrical performance by a mixed mechanism of grain refinement and the TiN composite phase-introduced pinning effect. These nanoscale processes, coupled with the addition of TiN, result in a reduction in grain size. The pinning effects of nano-TiN contribute to increased resistance to crack propagation. Finally, the TiN-dispersed Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 samples demonstrate increased hardness, bending strength and compressive strength, reaching 0.98 GPa, 36.3 MPa and 74 MPa. When compared to the ZM ingots, those represent increments of 181%, 60% and 67%, respectively. Moreover, the thermoelectric performance of the TiN-dispersed Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 samples is identical to the ZM ingots. The samples exhibit a peak dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) value of 0.957 at 375 K, with an average ZT value of 0.89 within the 325-450 K temperature range. This work has significantly enhanced mechanical properties, increasing the adaptability and reliability of bismuth telluride devices for various applications, and the multi-effect modulation of mechanical properties demonstrated in this study can be applied to other thermoelectric material systems.
ABSTRACT
High purity germanium (HPGe) detector is a preferred choice for determining the activity of the radioactive samples for nuclear diagnostics of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiments. Although the amounts of the radiochemical sample are limited, activity measurement at a close distance between the detector window and the radioactive source is a feasible method. Efficiency calibration of gamma rays at a close distance from the surface of a HPGe detector is crucial. Considering the problem of the coincidence at a close distance, the alternative way is to construct a precise model of the HPGe detector and then to calculate efficiency accurately at an arbitrary distance from the surface of the HPGe detector using Monte Carlo method. In this paper, internal geometry and structure except for dead layers of the HPGe detector is obtained by X-ray radiography and 3D reconstruction. The optimal dead layers of the germanium crystal are determined by tracing the minimal sum squared residual (SSR) of gamma-ray efficiencies between calculations and measurements for standard planar sources. Nonhomogeneous distribution of the dead layer is supposed according to the inner structure on the Ge crystal. The final results show that the corrected model improves the accuracy of the calculated efficiencies.
ABSTRACT
Ion implantation is used to build a nanometer scale anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) cluster embedded exchange bias (EB) system. Ni film with a thickness of 100 nm is deposited on the Si (100) substrate using magnetron sputtering, 140 keV O+ is chosen to implant into the Ni film to form NiO AFM clusters, of which the size is estimated by X-ray diffraction based on synchrotron radiation (SR-XRD). By measuring hysteresis loop after field-cooling, significant shifts of loop along the applied field are observed. By increasing the implantation dose up to 3 x 10(17)/cm2 and annealing samples in N2 atmosphere, we discuss the origin of EB effect observed and the size confinement effect which lowers down the Néel temperature (T(N)) of NiO cluster to below room temperature.
