We present an analysis of the thermoelectric properties of of n-type GeTe and SnTe in relation to the lead chalcogenides PbTe and PbSe. We find that the singly degenerate conduction bands of semiconducting GeTe and SnTe are highly non-ellipsoidal, even very close to the band edges. This leads to isoenergy surfaces with a strongly corrugated shape that is clearly evident at carrier concentrations well below 0.005 e per formula unit (7–9 × 1019 cm−3 depending on material). Analysis within Boltzmann theory suggests that this corrugation may be favorable for the thermoelectric transport. Our calculations also indicate that values of the power factor for these two materials may well exceed those of PbTe and PbSe. As a result these materials may exhibit n-type performance exceeding that of the lead chalcogenides.
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机译：我们提出了与铅硫族化物PbTe和PbSe有关的n型GeTe和SnTe的热电性能分析。我们发现，半导体GeTe和SnTe的单简并导带是高度非椭圆形的，甚至非常靠近能带边缘。这导致等能量表面具有强烈的波纹状，当载流子浓度远低于每个公式单位0.005 e（7–9×10 19 cm −3 材料）。玻耳兹曼理论中的分析表明，这种波纹可能对热电传输有利。我们的计算还表明，这两种材料的功率因数值可能远远超过PbTe和PbSe。结果，这些材料可能表现出超过硫族酸铅的n型性能。
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