Quasicrystals as potential candidates for thermoelectric materials

Quasicrystals have unusual thermal and electronic properties, such as low thermal conductivity, electronic conductivity increasing with temperature and defects and a thermoelectric power which can be large and positive in some cases. Ail these properties can be understood in a scheme where their peculiar atomic structure induces a complex Fermi surface. Applications of quasicrystals as new thermoelectric materials are discussed in terms of their figure of merit. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.