Enhanced thermoelectric properties of samarium boride

SmB62 single crystals were successfully grown by the floating zone (FZ) method. The high-temperature thermoelectric properties were investigated, together with magnetic properties and specific heat at low-temperature. The electrical resistivity, ρ, shows variable-range-hopping (VRH) behavior with significantly lower values than other rare-earth RB62 (RB66) compounds. An effective magnetic moment, μeff, of 0.42 μB/Sm was estimated, which if straightforwardly taken indicates a mixed valency for SmB62 with Sm2+:Sm3+ = 1:1, which is the first ever indicated for RB66-type compounds. Localization length of the VRH at the Fermi level, ξ, was estimated to be 3.33 Å indicating that carriers in SmB62 are much less localized than in YB66 which has 0.56 Å. The thermoelectric behavior of SmB62 is striking, with ρ reduced by two orders of magnitude while maintaining large Seebeck coefficients, and as a result the power factor is ∼30 times higher than other rare-earth phases. Overall the figure of merit ZT amounts to ∼0.13 at 1050 K, with an extrapolated value of ∼0.4 at 1500 K, an expected working temperature for topping cycles in thermal power plants; that gives a ∼40 times enhancement for Sm. Since there are few thermoelectric materials applicable for very-high temperature applications, this discovery gives new interest in the samarium higher borides.