%0 Journal Article
%T Synthesis and Study of Electrical Properties of SbTeI
%A Harish K. Dubey
%A L. P. Deshmukh
%A D. E. Kshirsagar
%A Madhuri Sharon
%A Maheshwar Sharon
%J Advances in Physical Chemistry
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/965350
%X Needle shaped SbTeI crystals were obtained by solid state reaction. Electrical resistance was measured in the temperature range of 4ˋK to 550ˋK. SbTeI shows a metallic behavior from 4ˋK to 300ˋK, and at higher temperature (>300ˋK), it shows semiconducting behavior. Unlike SbSI, this material shows almost zero resistance around 550ˋK. It shows a piezoelectric behavior with a capacitance of 717ˋpF and its carrier density and nobilities are found to be 2.12 ℅ 1016ˋcmˋ3 and 1.01ˋcm2/(V﹞s), respectively. Crystals of SbTeI are characterized by XRD, SEM, and Raman analysis. Electrical activation energy is found to be 0.52ˋeV. It is suggested that this material may be studied for its application as a superconductor with Tc higher than room temperature. 1. Introduction Many ternary chalcogenide compounds with the combination of Sb, S, Te, Bi, Cl, Br, Se, and I have been reported in the recent years and various attempts have been made to study their applications, like the electrostrictive constant, electroceramics property, semiconducting properties [1, 2], and so forth. SbSI is one of the most intensively studied compounds of this family [3每6]. Nitsche and Merz [7] have synthesized materials like SbSI, SbSBr, SbSeBr, SbSeI, SbTeI, BiSCl, BiSBr, BiSI, BiSeCl, and BiSeBr and studied their photoconducting properties. Papazoglou and Rentzeperis [8] have examined in detail the crystal structure of SbTeI and also reported that SbSI has metallic and semiconducting behavior. Kichambare et al. [9每11] prepared SbTeI at different temperatures and calculated the values of lattice constants, ionization potentials, and activation energies. Later, they doped SbTeI with Bi and studied its impact on the values of lattice constant, ionization potential, and activation energy. Since in-depth studies on the electrical properties of SbTeI are not made [3每6, 8每12], it was thought to be desirable to study the electrical properties of SbTeI to find out the carrier concentration, mobility, piezoelectric property, capacitance, and so forth. In this paper, we report synthesis of SbTeI using solid state reaction technique and electrical properties studies using van der Pauw and two probe techniques in the temperature range of 4ˋK每550ˋK. 2. Experimental 2.1. Synthesis of SbTeI by Solid State Thermal Reaction SbTeI was synthesized by keeping equal weighed quantity of the constituents (Se, Te and I) in a quartz tube of 24ˋcm length and 1.0ˋcm diameter (Figure 1(a)). The quantities of Sb, Te, and I were taken in the ratio 1ˋ:ˋ1ˋ:ˋ1, that is, 2ˋgm each. The tube was sealed under vacuum and then
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/apc/2014/965350/