Abstract
In Bi~2~Te~3~, dislocations were found with an uniquely high mobility at room temperature. The gliding dislocations were analysed and their effect on the thermoelectric properties is discussed. The glide of dislocations was induced by heating with a focused electron beam at 120 keV, external stresses were not applied. The dislocations were bowed out in the glide direction and were only pinned at the surface of the samples. Stereomicroscopy combined with image simulations yielded basal plane dislocations with a density of 10^9^ cm^–2^ and Burgers vectors of type 〈110〉. Video sequences showing the glide of single dislocations and groups of dislocations were recorded. Isolated dislocations showed a high mobility in ±〈110〉 direction at a velocity of 10–100 nm s^–1^. Dislocation dipoles were pinned and did not glide. Dislocations equidistantly arranged within the same glide plane showed a collective movement. Dislocations piled up in different glide planes were fixed and acted as barriers for gliding dislocations. The motion of dislocations was attributed to residual shear stresses of about 10 MPa, and their glide directions depended on the sign of the Burgers vector. Attractive and repulsive forces of dislocations directly visualise the forces due to the elastic strain fields of other dislocations. The relevance of phonon scattering on dislocations in Bi~2~Te~3~, particularly due to their high mobility and density, was confirmed by two inspections: (i) Dislocations decrease the lattice thermal conductivity due to phonon scattering on the elastic strain field. The phonon mean free path was estimated to about 800 µm at 3 K and agreed with published data. (ii) The dislocation resonance theory of Granato and Lücke predicts an interaction between phonons and dislocations acting as oscillating strings. The attenuation of ultrasound was estimated and was compared with published data. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)