Thermoelectric research on germanium telluride (GeTe) has been mainly focused on the enhancement of its performance in the high-temperature cubic phase since the 1960s. Recently in Joule, Pei and co-workers achieved an unprecedented thermoelectric figure of merit in rhombohedral-phase GeTe by exploiting slight symmetry breaking in the structure, which simultaneously improved the electronic properties and reduced the lattice thermal conductivity.

中文翻译：

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热电学中的轻微对称性降低

自1960年代以来，碲化锗（GeTe）的热电研究主要集中在提高其在高温立方相中的性能。Pei和他的同事们最近在Joule中，通过利用结构中的轻微对称性断裂，在菱面体相GeTe中获得了前所未有的热电性能，同时改善了电子性能并降低了晶格导热率。