Deposition of thermoelectric strontium hexaboride thin films by a low pressure CVD method

Abstract Thin films of SrB 6 were deposited on sapphire substrates using a chemical vapor deposition method, with elemental strontium and decaborane, B 10 H 14 , used as the strontium and boron sources, respectively. The formation of highly crystalline, phase-pure SrB 6 films was confirmed with X-ray diffraction and reflection high energy diffraction (RHEED) analysis, and the films’ thermoelectric transport properties were measured. A relatively high deposition temperature of 850–950 °C was found to be optimal for obtaining well-crystallized films at an extremely high deposition rate. The thermoelectric transport properties of the SrB 6 thin films were observed to be comparable to those reported for bulk materials, but an unexpectedly high electrical resistivity led to a reduced power factor value for the thin films.