Tuning thermoelectric properties of Ca 0.9 Gd 0.1 MnO 3 by laser processing

Donor-doped CaMnO3 is an n-type semiconductor with perovskite structure, being considered as a potential n-type leg in thermoelectric modules. This oxide presents stability at high temperatures and allows tuning the relevant electrical and thermal transport properties through doping. In this work, Ca0.9Gd0.1MnO3 precursors have been prepared to produce fibres through the laser floating zone technique using different pulling rates. However, as-grown fibres did not present thermoelectric properties due to the presence of high amounts of secondary phases, leading to very high electrical resistivity values. The results have highlighted the importance of annealing procedures to reduce electrical resistivity, due to the decrease of secondary phases amount, and producing promising thermoelectric performances. The annealed samples present higher ZT values when the growth rate is decreased, reaching around 0.22 for the lowest growth rate, which is very close to the best values reported in the literature for these materials. Moreover, this procedure possesses an additional advantage considering that these samples can be directly used as n-type legs in thermoelectric modules for high-temperature applications. However, further studies should be made to determine the optimal amount of dopant.