Abstract
Phase change materials are identified for their ability to rapidly alternate between amorphous and crystalline phases and have large contrast in the optical/electrical properties of the respective phases. The materials are primarily used in memory storage applications, but recently they have also been identified as potential thermoelectric materials.[1] Many of the phase change materials studied today can be found on the pseudo-binary (GeTe)1-x(Sb2Te3)x tie-line. While many compounds on this tie-line have been recognized as thermoelectric materials, here we focus on Ge4SbTe5, a single phase compound just off of the (GeTe)1-x(Sb2Te3)x tie-line, that forms in a stable rocksalt crystal structure at room temperature. We find that stoichiometric and undoped Ge4SbTe5 exhibits a thermal conductivity of ~1.2 W/m-K at high temperature and a large Seebeck coefficient of ~250 μV/K. The resistivity decreases dramatically at 623 K due to a structural phase transition which lends to a large enhancement in both thermoelectric power factor and thermoelectric figure of merit at 823 K. In a more general sense the work presents evidence that phase change materials can potentially provide a new route to highly efficient thermoelectric materials for power generation at high temperature.
