Thermoelectric transport of Se-rich Ag2Se in normal phases and phase transitions

Small amount of Se atoms are used to tune the carrier concentrations (nH) and electrical transport in Ag2Se. Significant enhancements in power factor and thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) are observed in the compositions of Ag2Se1.06 and Ag2Se1.08. The excessive Se atoms do not change the intrinsically electron-conducting character in Ag2Se. The detailed analysis reveals the experiment optimum carrier concentration in Ag2Se is around 5 × 1018 cm−3. We also investigate the temperature of maximum zT and the thermoelectric transport during the first order phase transitions using the recently developed measurement system.