Tuning the Electrical and Thermoelectric Properties of N Ion Implanted SrTiO3 Thin Films and Their Conduction Mechanisms.

The SrTiO3 thin films were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition. Subsequently ion implantation with 60 keV N ions at two different fluences 1 × 1016 and 5 × 1016 ions/cm2 and followed by annealing was carried out. Thin films were then characterized for electronic structure, morphology and transport properties. X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals the local distortion of TiO6 octahedra and introduction of oxygen vacancies due to N implantation. The electrical and thermoelectric properties of these films were measured as a function of temperature to understand the conduction and scattering mechanisms. It is observed that the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient (S) of these films are significantly enhanced for higher N ion fluence. The temperature dependent electrical resistivity has been analysed in the temperature range of 80-400 K, using various conduction mechanisms and fitted with band conduction, near neighbour hopping (NNH) and variable range hopping (VRH) models. It is revealed that the band conduction mechanism dominates at high temperature regime and in low temperature regime, there is a crossover between NNH and VRH. The S has been analysed using the relaxation time approximation model and dispersive transport mechanism in the temperature range of 300-400 K. Due to improvement in electrical conductivity and thermopower, the power factor is enhanced to 15 µWm-1 K-2 at 400 K at the higher ion fluence which is in the order of ten times higher as compared to the pristine films. This study suggests that ion beam can be used as an effective technique to selectively alter the electrical transport properties of oxide thermoelectric materials.

Effect of Fe ion implantation on the thermoelectric properties and electronic structures of CoSb3 thin films.

In the present study, thin films of single-phase CoSb3 were deposited onto Si(100) substrates via pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method using a polycrystalline target of CoSb3. These films were implanted by 120 keV Fe-ions with three different fluences: 1 × 1015, 2.5 × 1015 and 5 × 1015 ions per cm2. All films were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), Rutherford backscattering (RBS) spectrometry and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). XRD data revealed that the ion implantation decreased the crystalline nature of these films, which are recovered after the rapid thermal annealing process. The Seebeck coefficient S vary with the fluences in the temperature range of 300 K to 420 K, and is found to be highest (i.e., 254 µV K-1) at 420 K for the film implanted with 1 × 1015 ions per cm2. The high S and low resistivity lead to the highest power factor for the film implanted with 1 × 1015 ions per cm2 (i.e., 700 µW m-1 K-2) at 420 K. The changing of the sign of S from negative for the pristine film to positive for the Fe-implanted samples confirm that the Fe ions are electrically active and act as electron acceptors by replacing the Co atoms. XAS measurements confirm that the Fe ions occupied the Co site in the cubic frame of the skutterudite and exist in the 3+ oxidation state in this structure.