The Thermal Conductivity of Bismuth Telluride

Measurements of the thermal conductivity of bismuth telluride have been made in the range of temperature 150°K to 300°K. It has been found that the electronic contribution to the conduction of heat is considerably greater for specimens in which the charge carriers are intrinsically excited than for specimens in which most of the carriers arise from an impurity concentration; this can be explained by the recently proposed theory which takes into account the transfer of ionization energy down a temperature gradient.