Effects of hydrostatic pressure on the thermoelectric properties of the ϵ-polytype of InSe, GaSe, and InGaSe2 semiconductor compounds: an ab initio study

Abstract

This work presents an ab initio study of the effects of hydrostatic pressure on the Seebeck coefficients and thermoelectric power factors of the ϵ-polytype of InSe, GaSe, and InGaSe2 semiconductor compounds. Our study is performed using the semi-classical Boltzmann theory and the rigid band approach. The electronic band structures of these materials are calculated using the full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method. The obtained thermoelectric properties are discussed in terms of the results of the electronic structure calculations. As we will show, our calculated Seebeck coefficient values indicate that these materials are good alternatives to other well-studied thermoelectric systems.