Thermoelectric Power of the Liquid Sn—Te Alloy
The Seebeck coefficient (S) of Sni1-x- Tex liquid alloys was measured as a function of concentration and temperature. For 0 ≦ x <0.45 the behaviour is metallic; S values are small and negative, rising linearly with temperature. The predicted values of Ziman's theory when using the hard sphere approximation disagree with the experimental ones. The change in sign occurs for 0.45. For x = 0.5 (stoichiometric composition) the thermoelectric power decreases linearly with temperature. This fact is explained assuming a two-band model. For x ≧ 0.6 the liquid alloy becomes more semiconducting and presents a maximum in the isotherms of S for x = 0.65. For the excess tellurium concentration range we have calculated the difference EF - EV and γ/kB, assuming a S(1/T) law. The experimental values are compared with those of Dancy and Glazov.