Experimental determination of phonon thermal conductivity and Lorenz ratio of single crystal bismuth telluride

Abstract

We use a magnetothermal resistance method to measure the lattice thermal conductivity of a single crystal of Bi$_2$Te$_3$ from 5 to 60 K. We apply a large transverse magnetic field to suppress the electronic thermal conduction while measuring thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity. The lattice thermal conductivity is then calculated by extrapolating the thermal conductivity versus electrical conductivity curve to a zero electrical conductivity value. Our results show that the measured phonon thermal conductivity follows the $e^{({\Delta}_{min}/T)}$ temperature dependence and the Lorenz ratio corresponds to the modified Sommerfeld value in the intermediate temperature range. Our low-temperature experimental data and analysis on Bi$_2$Te$_3$ are an important compliment to previous measurements of Goldsmid [14] and theoretical calculations by Broido $\textit{et al.}$ [21] at higher temperature 100 - 300 K.