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Large transverse thermoelectric figure of merit in a topological Dirac semimetal

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Abstract

The Seebeck effect encounters a few fundamental constraints hindering its thermoelectric (TE) conversion efficiency. Most notably, there are the charge compensation of electrons and holes that diminishes this effect, and the Wiedemann-Franz (WF) law that makes independent optimization of the corresponding electrical and thermal conductivities impossible. Here, we demonstrate that in the topological Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 the Nernst effect, i.e., the transverse counterpart of the Seebeck effect, can generate a large TE figure of merit zNT. At room temperature, zNT ≈ 0.5 in a small field of 2 T and it significantly surmounts its longitudinal counterpart for any field. A large Nernst effect is genetically expected in topological semimetals, benefiting from both the bipolar transport of compensated electrons and holes and their high mobilities. In this case, heat and charge transport are orthogonal, i.e., not intertwined by the WF law anymore. More importantly, further optimization of zNT by tuning the Fermi level to the Dirac node can be anticipated due to not only the enhanced bipolar transport, but also the anomalous Nernst effect arising from a pronounced Berry curvature. A combination of the topologically trivial and nontrivial advantages promises to open a new avenue towards high-efficient transverse thermoelectricity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    JunSen Xiang, SiLe Hu, Meng Lyu, WenLiang Zhu, ChaoYang Ma, Frank Steglich, GenFu Chen & PeiJie Sun

  2. Department of Physics, Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Measurement-Manipulation and Physics, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    JunSen Xiang & ZiYu Chen

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    SiLe Hu, Meng Lyu, WenLiang Zhu, ChaoYang Ma, GenFu Chen & PeiJie Sun

  4. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, 01187, Germany

    Frank Steglich

  5. Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, 523808, China

    GenFu Chen & PeiJie Sun

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  1. JunSen Xiang
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  2. SiLe Hu
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Correspondence to PeiJie Sun.

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Xiang, J., Hu, S., Lyu, M. et al. Large transverse thermoelectric figure of merit in a topological Dirac semimetal. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 63, 237011 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-019-1445-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-019-1445-4

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