Peek into the World of Materials Using Thermopower and Xafs as Investigative Probes

Over the last few decades, there has been growing interest for developing technologies aimed at providing cleaner and more sustainable energy sources. Great efforts are directed towards synthesis of newer functional materials and tailoring the existing ones with an aim to optimize their usability. As materials are being developed with various complexities in their physical properties and forms like single crystals, thin-films, nanostructure and composites, measurement of their basic physical properties is also getting equally challenging. This review deals with a brief summary of our efforts in developing the basic understanding of some functional materials, using experimental tools that are best known to us, viz. measurement of Seebeck coefficient and X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS). In particular, we discuss the results of our investigation of magnetic shape memory alloy Ni2MnGa and multiferroic CdCr₂Se₄.