Thermoelectric properties of thin-film Sb$_{0.9}$Bi$_{1.1}$Te$_{2.9}$Se$_{0.1}$–C composites

Thin-film nanocomposites of a Sb$_{0.9}$Bi$_{1.1}$Te$_{2.9}$Se$_{0.1}$ semiconductor solid solution in the carbon matrix have been synthesized. The low-temperature dependences of the electrical resistivity and thermoelectric power have been investigated in the temperature range of 77–300 K. It has been shown that there is a successive change in the dominant mechanisms of electrical conduction: variable-range hopping conduction over localized states lying in a narrow energy band near the Fermi level, hopping conduction over the nearest neighbors, and hopping electron transfer associated with charge carriers excited into localized states near the band edges.