Pressure-tuned colossal improvement of thermoelectric efficiency of PbTe

Abstract
The variations in thermoelectric (TE) efficiencies æ of lead chalcogenide compounds ( p - Pb Te , n - Pb Te , p - Pb 0.55 Te 0.45 , p - Pb 1 − x Sn x Te 1 − y , p - Pb Se , and p - Pb S ) at room temperature for the pressure P range of P ∼ 0 – 10 GPa are reported. A colossal ( ∼ 100 times) pressure-tuned improvement of æ is found for PbTe-based crystals under application of P ∼ 2 – 3 GPa . The employed high-pressurecell with synthetic diamond anvils is a model of a simple and effective TE device.