Application of hot isostatic pressing for consolidation of n-type silicon-germanium alloys prepared by mechanical alloying

Improvements to state-of-the-art Si,,Ge,, thermoelectric alloys have been o bserved in laboratory-scale samples prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) an d consolidated by hot pressing. This paper discusses consolidation of large -scale quantities of mechanically alloyed powders into production size comp acts. Differences in thermoelectric properties have been observed between c ompacts prepared by conventional hot uniaxial pressing (HUP) and those prep ared by hot isostatic pressing (HIP). due primarily to a difference in carr ier concentration between alloys consolidated by the two techniques. (C) 19 99 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.