3D charge and 2D phonon transports leading to high out-of-plane ZT in n-type SnSe crystals

作者：Cheng Chang, Minghui Wu, Dongsheng He, Yanling Pei, Chaofeng Wu, Xuefeng Wu, Hulei Yu, Fangyuan Zhu, Kedong Wang, Yue Chen, Li Huang, Jing‐Feng Li, Jiaqing He, Li‐Dong Zhao · 发表于：Science · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1126/science.aaq1479 · 被引用次数：1198 · 研究领域：Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices、Chalcogenide Semiconductor Thin Films、Thermal properties of materials

of ~2.8 ± 0.5 at 773 kelvin in n-type tin selenide (SnSe) crystals out of plane. The thermal conductivity in layered SnSe crystals is the lowest in the out-of-plane direction [two-dimensional (2D) phonon transport]. We doped SnSe with bromine to make n-type SnSe crystals with the overlapping interlayer charge density (3D charge transport). A continuous phase transition increases the symmetry and diverges two converged conduction bands. These two factors improve carrier mobility, while preserving a large Seebeck coefficient. Our findings can be applied in 2D layered materials and provide a new strategy to enhance out-of-plane electrical transport properties without degrading thermal properties.