Optoelectronic Properties, Elastic Moduli and Thermoelectricity of SrAlGa: An Ab Initio Study

Half-Heusler compounds are an impressive class of materials with a huge potential for different applications such as in future energy, especially in the fields of thermoelectrics and solar cells. We present ab initio total energy calculations within the modified Becke–Johnson generalized gradient approximation (mBJ-GGA) to obtain the physical properties of SrAlGa compounds. The structural, elastic, acoustic, electronic, chemical bonding, optical, and thermoelectric properties are calculated and compared with the available calculation data. The SrAlGa is found to be a small-band-gap (0.125–0.175 eV) material, suitable for thermoelectric applications with a relatively high Seebeck coefficient. Also, SrAlGa has the potential in the optoelectronic applications due to high optical conductivity and reflectivity in the infrared and visible region of electromagnetic spectra.