Publications

The most conspicuous feature of boron carbides' electronic transport properties is their having both high carrier densities and large Seebeck coefficients. The magnitudes and temperature dependencies of the Seebeck coefficients are consistent with large contributions from softening bipolarons: singlet bipolarons whose stabilization is significantly affected by their softening of local vibrations. Boron carbides' high carrier densities, small activation energies for hopping ({approx} 0.16 eV), and anomalously large Seebeck coefficients combine with their low, glass-like thermal conductivities to make them unexpectedly efficient high-temperature thermoelectrics.

The electrical conductivities of boron carbides, B{sub 12+x}C{sub 3{minus}x} with 0.1 < x < 1.7, between 300 and 1200K suggest the hopping of a nearly temperature-independent density of small (bi)polarons. The activation energies of the nobilities are low, {approx} 0.16 eV, and are nearly independent of the composition. At lower temperatures, conductivities have non-Arrhenius temperature dependencies and strong sensitivity to carbon concentration. Percolative aspects of low-temperature hopping are evident in this sensitivity to composition. Boron carbides' Seebeck coefficients are anomalous in that (1) they are much larger than expected from boron carbides' large carrier densities and (2) they depend only weakly on the carrier density. Carrier-induced softening of local vibrations gives contributions to the Seebeck coefficient that mirror the magnitudes and temperature dependencies found in boron carbides.