Copper(I) iodide, CuI, is the leading p-type nontoxic and earth-abundant semiconducting material for transparent electronics and thermoelectric generators. Defects play a crucial role in determining the carrier concentration, scattering process, and, therefore, the thermoelectric performance of a material. As a result of defect engineering, the power factor of thin film CuI was increased from 332±32 to 578±58 μW m−1K−2 after implantation with noble gas ions (Ne, Ar, or Xe). The increased power factor is due to a decoupling of the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity identified through a changing scattering mechanism. Ion implantation causes the abundant production of Frenkel pairs, which were found to suppress compensating donors in CuI, and this scenario was also supported by density functional theory calculations. The compensating donor suppression led to a significantly improved Hall carrier concentration, increasing from 6.5×1019±0.1×1019 to 11.5×1019±0.4×1019 cm−3. This work provides an important step forward in the development of CuI as a transparent conducting material for electronics and thermoelectric generators by introducing beneficial point defects with ion implantation.

中文翻译：

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惰性气体离子注入缺陷工程诱导的 CuI 塞贝克系数和载流子浓度解耦


碘化铜 （CuI） 是领先的 p 型无毒且地球丰富的半导体材料，用于透明电子产品和热电发电机。缺陷在决定载流子浓度、散射过程以及材料的热电性能方面起着至关重要的作用。由于缺陷工程，在注入惰性气体离子（Ne、Ar 或 Xe）后，薄膜 CuI 的功率因数从 332±32 增加到 578±58 μW m-1K-2。功率因数的增加是由于塞贝克系数和电导率的解耦，通过变化的散射机制确定。离子注入导致 Frenkel 对的大量产生，发现 Frenkel 对抑制了 CuI 中的补偿供体，密度泛函理论计算也支持这种情况。补偿供体抑制导致霍尔载流子浓度显著提高，从 6.5×1019±0.1×1019 增加到 11.5×1019±0.4×1019 cm-3。这项工作通过在离子注入中引入有益的点缺陷，为将 CuI 开发为电子和热电发电机的透明导电材料迈出了重要的一步。