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Observation of a thermoelectric Hall plateau in the extreme quantum limit

Wenjie Zhang, Peipei Wang, Brian Skinner, Ran Bi, Vladyslav Kozii, Chang-Woo Cho, Ruidan Zhong, John Schneeloch, Dapeng Yu, Genda Gu, Liang Fu, Xiaosong Wu, Liyuan Zhang

2020Nature Communications58 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Abstract The thermoelectric Hall effect is the generation of a transverse heat current upon applying an electric field in the presence of a magnetic field. Here, we demonstrate that the thermoelectric Hall conductivity α x y in the three-dimensional Dirac semimetal ZrTe 5 acquires a robust plateau in the extreme quantum limit of magnetic field. The plateau value is independent of the field strength, disorder strength, carrier concentration, or carrier sign. We explain this plateau theoretically and show that it is a unique signature of three-dimensional Dirac or Weyl electrons in the extreme quantum limit. We further find that other thermoelectric coefficients, such as the thermopower and Nernst coefficient, are greatly enhanced over their zero-field values even at relatively low fields.

Topics & Concepts

Condensed matter physicsPlateau (mathematics)PhysicsThermoelectric effectSeebeck coefficientMagnetic fieldQuantum limitNernst effectQuantum Hall effectDirac (video compression format)ElectronLimit (mathematics)QuantumHall effectElectrical resistivity and conductivityField (mathematics)Thermoelectric materialsNernst equationThermal Hall effectElectric fieldDirac fermionElectron mobilityQuantum spin Hall effectQuantum wellElectric currentSemimetalLandau quantizationTopological Materials and PhenomenaAdvanced Thermoelectric Materials and DevicesGraphene research and applications
Observation of a thermoelectric Hall plateau in the extreme quantum limit | Litcius