Growth and thermoelectric properties of p-type layered GaTe single crystals

Gallium Telluride (GaTe) crystal is a member of chalcogenide crystal family as same as two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors. As for GaTe, the high dissymmetry between intra- and inter bond strengths can give rise to a strong scattering of the charge carriers by optical phonon polarized perpendicular to the layers, so thermal conductivity can be reduced. However, due to the difficulty in growth of large-size high quality crystals, it is one of the less investigated materials. In this talk, we report on the crystal structure and thermoelectric properties of p-type GaTe single crystals. The sample was obtained by the vertical temperature gradient method. The single crystal structure was determined by XRD and FE-SEM measurement. Thermoelectric and transport properties both along and perpendicular to the layered planes were evaluated in the temperature range from 20 to 400 K. We observed very high positive Seebeck coefficients in GaTe single crystal. Maximum values are about 2000 and 843 for in-plane and perpendicular direction, respectively. The results indicate a p-type semiconductor in GaTe single crystal. We will discuss on temperature and direction dependent power factor value of p-type GaTe in detail.