First-Principles Study of Electronic Structureand Thermoelectric Properties of Ge-Doped Tin Clathrates

We calculated the electronic structure and thermoelectric properties of the Ge-doped quaternary clathrate Ba-Ga-Sn-Ge. The electronic structure was calculated by using the WIEN2k code, which is based on the full-potential augmented plane-wave method. Using this method, we calculated the total energies for several Ge configurations to determine the positions of Ge atoms in the unit cell. The calculated Ge positions were in good agreement with the experimental results. Based on the resulting Ge positions, the band structure and thermoelectric properties of the Ba-Ga-Sn-Ge clathrates were calculated.