Effects of Annealing on Thermoelectric Transport in Polycrystalline NbP

POSTER

Abstract

The topological band structure of Weyl semimetals results in highly-mobile two-carrier systems which produce interesting transport properties. The Nernst effect is a thermoelectric phenomenon which occurs upon the application of a temperature gradient and a perpendicular magnetic field, resulting in a mutually orthogonal output voltage. Here, thermoelectric transport properties including the Seebeck effect, magneto-Seebeck effect, Nernst effect, thermal conductivity, and electrical resistivity, are presented for two polycrystalline samples of NbP. We find a significantly pronounced magneto-Seebeck effect, comparable in magnitude to the Nernst effect, which was not present when previously measured isothermally in single crystalline NbP [1]. This magneto-Seebeck effect is linear in magnetic field as theoretically predicted by Skinner and Fu [2]. Due to the similar scale of thermopower contributions from both Seebeck and Nernst effects in a magnetic field, we suggest a device in which the transverse and longitudinal thermopowers are connected electrically in series so that they may be added for even greater conversion between thermal and electrical energy. 

[1] S. J. Watzman et al. Phys. Rev. B 97(16), 161404(R) (2018). 

[2] B. Skinner and L. Fu. Sci. Adv. 4(5) (2018).

*This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences Early Career Research Program under Award Number DE-SC0020154.

Presenters

  • Katherine A Schlaak

    • Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

Authors

  • Katherine A Schlaak

    • Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

  • Eleanor F Scott

    • Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

  • Chenguang Fu

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany

  • Satya N Guin

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany
    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids

  • Safa Khodabakhsh

    • Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Cincinnati
    • Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

  • Ashley E Paz e Puente

    • Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Cincinnati
    • Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

  • Claudia Felser

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physic
    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany
    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids

  • Sarah J Watzman

    • Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Cincinnati
    • Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH