Experimental and theoretical investigation of Cr1-xScxN solid solutions for thermoelectrics

The ScN- and CrN-based transition-metal nitrides have recently emerged as a novel and unexpected class of materials for thermoelectrics. These materials constitute well-defined model systems for investigating mixing thermodynamics, phase stability, and band structure aiming for property tailoring. Here, we demonstrate an approach to tailor their thermoelectric properties by solid solutions. The trends in mixing thermodynamics and densities-of-states (DOS) of rocksalt-Cr1-xScxN solid solutions (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) are investigated by first-principles calculations, and Cr1-xScxN thin films are synthesized by magnetron sputtering. Pure CrN exhibits a high power factor, 1.7 × 10−3 W m−1 K−2 at 720 K, en…