Features of conductivity of the intermetallic semiconductor n-ZrNiSn heavily doped with a Bi donor impurity

The crystal structure, distribution of the electron density of states, and the energy, kinetic, and magnetic properties of the intermetallic semiconductor n-ZrNiSn heavily doped with a Bi donor impurity have been investigated in the ranges T = 80?400 K, N _D ^Bi ?? 9.5 × 10¹⁹cm^?3 (x = 0.005)?1.9 × 10²¹ cm^?3 (x = 0.10), and H ?? 0.5 T. It has been established that such doping generates two types of donor-like structural defects in the crystal, which manifest themselves in both the dependence of the variation in the unit cell parameter a(x) and temperature dependence of resistivity ln??(1/T) of ZrNiSn_{1 ? x} Bi _x (x = 0.005). It is shown that ZrNiSn_{1 ? x} Bi _x is a new promising thermoelectric material, which converts thermal energy to electric energy much more effectively as compared to n-ZrNiSn. The results obtained are discussed within the Shklovskii-Efros model of a heavily doped and strongly compensated semiconductor.