Half-Heusler thermoelectrics first attracted interest in the late-1990s and are currently undergoing
a renaissance. This has been driven by improved synthesis, processing and characterisation methods,
leading to increases in the thermoelectric figure of merit and the observation of novel phenomena
such as carrier filtering in nanocomposite samples. The difficulty in extracting good thermoelectric
performance is at first glance surprising given the relative simplicity of the ideal crystal
structure with only site occupancies and lattice parameter as crystallographic variables. However,
the observed thermoelectric properties are found to depend sensitively on sample processing. Recent
work has shown that prepared ingots can contain a range of inhomogeneities, including interstitials,
nano- and micron sized Heusler inclusions and multiple half-Heusler phases. For this reason, the
prepared materials are far more complex than initially appreciated and this may offer opportunities
to e...