Features of conductivity of the intermetallic semiconductor n-ZrNiSn heavily doped with a Bi donor impurity

The crystal structure, distribution of the electron density of states, and the energy, kinetic, and magnetic properties of the intermetallic semiconductor n -ZrNiSn heavily doped with a Bi donor impurity have been investigated in the ranges T = 80−400 K, N D Bi ≈ 9.5 × 10 19 cm −3 ( x = 0.005)−1.9 × 10 21 cm −3 ( x = 0.10), and H ≤ 0.5 T. It has been established that such doping generates two types of donor-like structural defects in the crystal, which manifest themselves in both the dependence of the variation in the unit cell parameter a ( x ) and temperature dependence of resistivity lnρ(1/ T ) of ZrNiSn 1 − x Bi x ( x = 0.005). It is shown that ZrNiSn 1 − x Bi x is a new promising thermoelectric material, which converts thermal energy to electric energy much more effectively as compared to n -ZrNiSn. The results obtained are discussed within the Shklovskii-Efros model of a heavily doped and strongly compensated semiconductor.