November 19, 2020
FRIMS member Assoc. Prof. Hidetoshi Miyazaki, Prof. Yoichi Nishino of Nagoya Institute of Technology and Prof. Kazuo Soda of Nagoya University have presented their latest result on Scientific Reports (Nature Research) online.
By combining X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectra obtained at the beamline of the Aichi Synchrotron Radiation Center, and crystal structure simulations done by using a large-scale parallel computer system in the Research Center for Computational Science of Okazaki, the group has observed the local distortion in the half-Heusler alloy and showed how the distortion effects the thermal conductivity in the alloy.
Further investigation on more detailed changes in the lattice distortion around the atomic defect and controlling the amount of distortion may lead to reduce the thermal conductivity and develop high-performance thermoelectric conversion materials in future.
“Probing Local Distortion around Structural Defects in half-Heusler thermoelectric NiZrSn Alloy”, Scientific Reports (Nature Research) 10, 19820 (2020)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76554-9 (Paper)