Motivated by a recent observation of good thermoelectric properties in %a %pyrite material PtSb2, we theoretically study related pyrites %materials in an attempt to %find a %better thermoelectric material. %Our aim is to seek for a material which overcomes the suppression of the Seebeck coefficient at high temperatures.% in PtSb2. We find that PtAs2 and PtP2 are good candidates, where a larger band gap than in PtSb2 combined with the overall flatness of the band top gives rise to a monotonically increasing Seebeck coefficient up to high temperatures. This expectation has been confirmed quite recently for hole doped PtAs2, where a very large power factor of ∼ 65μW/cmK2 at T=440 K is observed.
@article{arxiv.1308.3414,
title = {Theoretical expectation of large Seebeck effect in PtAs$_2$ and PtP$_2$},
author = {Kouta Mori and Hidetomo Usui and Hirofumi Sakakibara and Kazuhiko Kuroki},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1308.3414},
year = {2014}
}