Thermoelectric Behavior of Nickel Oxide

Abstract

Measurements have been made on the thermoelectric power of several nickel oxide samples containing foreign ions. Using an energy model recently proposed for nickel oxide, the effect of the nature and concentration of additions on the Fermi level, hole concentration, and mobility is derived and discussed. For most of the samples hole concentration can be related to chemical composition. A case of change in valence of the addition induced upon introduction into the matrix is found. The use of the thermoelectric effect to determine impurity in nickel oxide is discussed. The energy scheme of nickel oxide which emerges from this work and that of Morin is emphasized as a drastic departure from the classical model of an electrical semiconductor.