IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v6y2015i1d10.1038_ncomms8475.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Large Seebeck effect by charge-mobility engineering

Author

Listed:
  • Peijie Sun

    (Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Beipei Wei

    (Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Jiahao Zhang

    (Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Jan M. Tomczak

    (Institute of Solid State Physics, Vienna University of Technology)

  • A.M. Strydom

    (Highly Correlated Matter Research Group, University of Johannesburg
    Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids)

  • M. Søndergaard

    (University of Aarhus)

  • Bo B. Iversen

    (University of Aarhus)

  • Frank Steglich

    (Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids)

Abstract

The Seebeck effect describes the generation of an electric potential in a conducting solid exposed to a temperature gradient. In most cases, it is dominated by an energy-dependent electronic density of states at the Fermi level, in line with the prevalent efforts towards superior thermoelectrics through the engineering of electronic structure. Here we demonstrate an alternative source for the Seebeck effect based on charge-carrier relaxation: a charge mobility that changes rapidly with temperature can result in a sizeable addition to the Seebeck coefficient. This new Seebeck source is demonstrated explicitly for Ni-doped CoSb3, where a marked mobility change occurs due to the crossover between two different charge-relaxation regimes. Our findings unveil the origin of pronounced features in the Seebeck coefficient of many other elusive materials characterized by a significant mobility mismatch. When utilized appropriately, this effect can also provide a novel route to the design of improved thermoelectric materials.

Suggested Citation

  • Peijie Sun & Beipei Wei & Jiahao Zhang & Jan M. Tomczak & A.M. Strydom & M. Søndergaard & Bo B. Iversen & Frank Steglich, 2015. "Large Seebeck effect by charge-mobility engineering," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-5, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8475
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8475
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8475
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms8475?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. E. J. Wildman & G. B. Lawrence & A. Walsh & K. Morita & S. Simpson & C. Ritter & G. B. G. Stenning & A. M. Arevalo-Lopez & A. C. Mclaughlin, 2023. "Observation of an exotic insulator to insulator transition upon electron doping the Mott insulator CeMnAsO," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    2. Shohei Horike & Qingshuo Wei & Kouki Akaike & Kazuhiro Kirihara & Masakazu Mukaida & Yasuko Koshiba & Kenji Ishida, 2022. "Bicyclic-ring base doping induces n-type conduction in carbon nanotubes with outstanding thermal stability in air," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8475. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.