Co-doping effect on the electronic properties of nonstoichiometric tin telluride

The search for nontoxic compositions in the thermoelectric field has motivated many researches to find alternatives to the toxic Pb-based systems, capable of reaching their high conversion efficiency. SnTe is gaining much attention during the past years due to its superior eco-friendly character, and its very similar crystal and band structure to that of PbTe. These makes SnTe a promising compound with great potential to answer the demand and use as a fair thermoelectric candidate. Most of the recently published studies mainly discuss the stoichiometric SnTe alloy. Only several focus on the effect of introducing excess tin/tellurium to the system. For that reason, this research aims to investigate in detail the nonstoichiometric SnxTe1-x co-doped by bismuth and indium/iodine, in an attempt to optimize the electronic properties.