Structures and thermoelectrical properties of directionally solidified Au--PbTe eutectic

A composite material of gold and lead-telluride has been prepared by unidirectional solidification of a pseudo binary eutectic mixture. The eutectic microstructure consists of an hexagonal array of gold fibres in a PbTe matrix. The interfibre spacing lambda has been controlled over the range, 1.6 to 8 μm. The thermoelectric power α, the Hall coefficient R/sub H/ and the electrical resistivity rho have been measured for various interfibre spacings over the temperature range, 8 and 300 K. They are found to be dependent on the spacing lambda