The superconducting and critical current properties of thin films of NiBi3 formed on the surface of carbon microfibers and sapphire substrates are reported. The NiBi3 coated carbon microfibers were prepared by reacting 7 {mu}m diameter Ni-coated (~ 8
0 nm) carbon fibers with Bi vapor, and thin films on sapphire were formed by exposing electron-beam deposited Ni films (~ 40 - 120 nm) to Bi vapor. The microfibers and films show Tc = 4.3 K and 4.4 K,respectively, which were slightly higher than that reported for bulk polycrystalline NiBi3. The critical current density (Jc) was measured below the transition temperature and is well described by the Ginzburg-Landau power-law.
Low temperature (<400 K) thermoelectric properties of semiconducting RuIn3 and metallic IrIn3 are reported. RuIn3 is a narrow band gap semiconductor with a large n-type Seebeck coefficient at room temperature (S(290K)~400 {mu}V/K), but the thermoelec
tric Figure of merit (ZT(290K) = 0.007) is small because of high electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity ({kappa}(290 K) ~ 2.0 W/m K). IrIn3 is a metal with low thermopower at room temperature (S(290K)~20 {mu}V/K) . Iridium substitution on the ruthenium site has a dramatic effect on transport properties, which leads to a large improvement in the power factor and corresponding Figure of merit (ZT(380 K) = 0.053), improving the efficiency of the material by an over of magnitude.
