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Lead telluride is the compound semiconductor $\mathrm{PbTe}$, important in thermoelectric materials and infrared devices. Its electronic band structure and transport properties can be modified through composition and doping, while heat is carried by both charge carriers and lattice vibrations.

Thermoelectric performance is summarized by $ZT=S^2\sigma T/\kappa$, combining the Seebeck coefficient $S$, electrical conductivity $\sigma$ and thermal conductivity $\kappa$. These quantities cannot generally be tuned independently. Experiments on doped lead telluride-selenide alloys demonstrated improved performance by bringing multiple electronic valleys into closer energetic alignment, connecting band structure with measured transport.^[ref]

Yanzhong Pei is the first-listed author of Convergence of electronic bands for high performance bulk thermoelectrics by Yanzhong Pei and others. The study uses convergence of electronic bands in lead telluride-based alloys to improve performance measured by the thermoelectric figure of merit. It illustrates how electronic structure can be engineered alongside heat transport when optimizing the thermoelectric figure of merit.^[ref]