Large Nernst Power Factor over a Broad Temperature Range in Polycrystalline Weyl Semimetal NbP

The discovery of topological materials has provided new opportunities to exploit advanced materials for heat-to-electricity energy conversion as they share many common characteristics with thermoelectric materials. In this work, we report the magneto-thermoelectric properties and Nernst effect of the topological Weyl semimetal NbP. We find that polycrystalline, bulk NbP shows a significantly larger Nernst thermopower than its conventional thermopower under magnetic field. As a result, a maximum Nernst power factor of ~ 35*10-4 Wm-1K-2 is achieved at 9 T and 136 K, which is 4 times higher than its conventional power factor and is also comparable to that of state-of-the-art thermoelectrics. Moreover, the Nernst power factor maintains relatively large value over a broad temperature range. These results highlight that the enhancement of thermoelectric performance can be achieved in topological semimetals based on the Nernst effect and transverse transport.

Effect of magnons on interfacial phonon drag in YIG/metal systems

We examine substrate-to-film interfacial phonon drag on typical spin Seebeck heterostructures, in particular studying the effect of ferromagnetic magnons on the phonon-electron drag dynamics at the interface. We investigate with high precision the effect of magnons in the Pt|YIG heterostructure by designing a magnon drag thermocouple; a hybrid sample with both a Pt|YIG film and Pt|GGG interface accessible isothermally via a 6 nm Pt film patterned in a rectangular U shape with one arm on the 250 nm YIG film and the other on GGG. We measure the voltage between the isothermal ends of the U, while applying a temperature gradient parallel to the arms and perpendicular to the bottom connection. With a uniform applied temperature gradient, the Pt acts as a differential thermocouple. We conduct temperature-dependent longitudinal thermopower measurements on this sample. Results show that the YIG interface actually decreases the thermopower of the film, implying that magnons impede phonon drag. We repeat the experiment using metals with low spin Hall angles, Ag and Al, in place of Pt. We find that the phonon drag peak in thermopower is killed in samples where the metallic interface is with YIG. We also investigate magneto-thermopower and YIG film thickness dependence. These measurements confirm our findings that magnons impede the phonon-electron drag interaction at the metallic interface in these heterostructures.

Dirac dispersion generates large Nernst effect in Weyl semimetals

Weyl semimetals expand research on topologically protected transport by adding bulk Berry monopoles with linearly dispersing electronic states and topologically robust, gapless surface Fermi arcs terminating on bulk node projections. Here, we show how the Nernst effect, combining entropy with charge transport, gives a unique signature for the presence of Dirac bands. The Nernst thermopower of NbP (maximum of 800 microV K-1 at 9 T, 109 K) exceeds its conventional thermopower by a hundredfold and is significantly larger than the thermopower of traditional thermoelectric materials. The Nernst effect has a pronounced maximum near T_M=90 +/- 20 K=mu_0/kB (mu_0 is chemical potential at T=0 K). A self-consistent theory without adjustable parameters shows that this results from electrochemical potential pinning to the Weyl point energy at T>=TM, driven by charge neutrality and Dirac band symmetry. Temperature and field dependences of the Nernst effect, an even function of the charge polarity, result from the intrinsically bipolar nature of the Weyl fermions. Through this study, we offer an understanding of the temperature dependence of the position of the electrochemical potential vis-a-vis the Weyl point, and we show a direct connection between topology and the Nernst effect, a potentially robust experimental tool for investigating topological states and the chiral anomaly.

Fermi arc mediated entropy transport in topological semimetals

In topological Weyl semimetals, the low energy excitations are comprised of linearly dispersing Weyl fermions, which act as monopoles of Berry curvature in momentum space and result in topologically protected Fermi arcs on the surfaces. We propose that these Fermi arcs in Weyl semimetals lead to an anisotropic magnetothermal conductivity, strongly dependent on externally applied magnetic field and resulting from entropy transport driven by circulating electronic currents. The circulating currents result in no net charge transport, but they do result in a net entropy transport. This translates into a magnetothermal conductivity that should be a unique experimental signature for the existence of the arcs. We analytically calculate the Fermi arc-mediated magnetothermal conductivity in the low-field semiclassical limit as well as in the high-field ultra-quantum limit, where only the chiral Landau levels are involved. By numerically including the effects of higher Landau levels, we show how the two limits are linked at intermediate magnetic fields. This work provides the first proposed signature of Fermi arc-mediated thermal transport and sets the stage for utilizing and manipulating the topological Fermi arcs in experimental thermal applications.