Measurement system for high pressure characterizations of materials

MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FOR HIGH PRESSURE CHARACTERIZATIONS OFMATERIALS by Matthew K. Jacobsen Dr. Andrew Cornelius, Examination Committee Chair Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy University of Nevada, Las Vegas Thermoelectric materials have long been investigated for possible use as power sources. This application was recently put to use in the Voyager space program, powering the deep space probes. Despite the usefulness of these materials, the use of pressure to investigate the material properties has only recently become interesting. As such, the work in this document was to developing a system for concurrently measuring the necessary properties. This system is capable of measuring the electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity, and Seebeck coefficient in the pressure range from 0 10 GPa. The results for zinc, almandine garnet, and nickel are presented and demonstrate the capabilities of the system. In addition, results are presented for selected established (Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, BiSbTe3) and potential (GaTe, InTe, and InGaTe2) thermoelectric materials. The measurements have been made with pressure up to 10 GPa (transport properties, except heat capacity) or 20 GPa (structure). From these measured properties, it is possible to evaluate how pressure effects the interactions.