Large, nonsaturating thermopower of nodal semimetals in a quantizing magnetic field

ORAL

Abstract

The thermoelectric effect is the generation of an electrical voltage from a temperature gradient in a solid material. Identifying materials with large thermoelectric response is pivotal for the development of novel electric generators and coolers. In this talk we consider theoretically the thermopower of Dirac/Weyl semimetals subjected to a quantizing magnetic field. We show that, under a sufficiently large magnetic field, the thermopower grows linearly with the field strength without saturation and can reach extremely high values. Our results suggest an immediate pathway for achieving record-high thermopower and thermoelectric figure of merit, and compare well with recent experiments.

Presenters

  • Brian Skinner

    • Massachusetts Inst of Tech-MIT

Authors

  • Brian Skinner

    • Massachusetts Inst of Tech-MIT
  • Liang Fu

    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Inst of Tech-MIT
    • Physics, Massachusetts Inst of Tech-MIT
    • Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Physics, Massachusetts Inst of Technology
    • Physics, MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • MIT