Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
The temperature dependences of lattice thermal conductivity λp in the range of 300-650 K were obtained for SnTe1+x semiconducting phase with x =0-0.04. It is established that the nonstoichiometric vacancies are centers of effective scattering of phonons. The scattering cross-section calculated from experimental data is in a good agreement with the theoretical calculations based on the Klemens theory. The linear change of thermal resistance with temperature is observed, which evidences the prevalence of three-phonon scattering processes. The additional thermal resistance grows as the concentration of cation vacancies increases.