Thermoelectric and transport properties of β-Ag2Se compounds

The Hall coefficient, electrical resistivity, and Seebeck coefficient of n-type specimens of beta-Ag2Se, the low temperature polymorph of silver selenide, were measured over the temperature range from 70 to 300 K. The results showed maxima in both Hall coefficient and the electrical resistivity just below the onset of the intrinsic conduction range. This anomaly was qualitatively explained by the deviation of the Coulomb scattering from the usual assumption of independence due to the degenerate nature of the samples. The estimated energy gap for different samples of about 160 meV seems to confirm the existence of the second low temperature phase beta(2). This second phase is a probable reason for the relatively high thermoelectric figure of merit observed. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)00214-0].