What is measured when measuring a thermoelectric coefficient?
A thermal gradient generates an electric field in any solid hosting mobile electrons. In presence of a finite magnetic field (or Berry curvature) this electric field has a transverse component. These are known as Seebeck and Nernst coefficients. As Callen argued, back in 1948, the Seebeck effect qua...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Académie des sciences
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Comptes Rendus. Physique |
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| Online Access: | https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/physique/articles/10.5802/crphys.100/ |
| _version_ | 1811153864019148800 |
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| author | Behnia, Kamran |
| author_facet | Behnia, Kamran |
| author_sort | Behnia, Kamran |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A thermal gradient generates an electric field in any solid hosting mobile electrons. In presence of a finite magnetic field (or Berry curvature) this electric field has a transverse component. These are known as Seebeck and Nernst coefficients. As Callen argued, back in 1948, the Seebeck effect quantifies the entropy carried by a flow of charged particles in absence of thermal gradient. Similarly, the Nernst conductivity, $\alpha _{xy}$, quantifies the entropy carried by a flow of magnetic flux in absence of thermal gradient. The present paper summarizes a picture in which the rough amplitude of the thermoelectric response is given by fundamental units and material-dependent length scales. Therefore, knowledge of material-dependent length scales allows predicting the amplitude of the signal measured by experiments. Specifically, the Nernst conductivity scales with the square of the mean-free-path in metals. Its anomalous component in magnets scales with the square of the fictitious magnetic length. Ephemeral Cooper pairs in the normal state of a superconductor generate a signal, which scales with the square of the superconducting coherence length and smoothly evolves to the signal produced by mobile vortices below the critical temperature. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T16:15:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4335830d524143e08412668a5af63ccc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1878-1535 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T16:15:02Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | Académie des sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Comptes Rendus. Physique |
| spelling | doaj.art-4335830d524143e08412668a5af63ccc2023-10-24T14:21:40ZengAcadémie des sciencesComptes Rendus. Physique1878-15352022-03-0123S2254010.5802/crphys.10010.5802/crphys.100What is measured when measuring a thermoelectric coefficient?Behnia, Kamran0Laboratoire de Physique et d’Etude de Matériaux (CNRS-Sorbonne University), ESPCI Paris, PSL University, 10 Rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, FranceA thermal gradient generates an electric field in any solid hosting mobile electrons. In presence of a finite magnetic field (or Berry curvature) this electric field has a transverse component. These are known as Seebeck and Nernst coefficients. As Callen argued, back in 1948, the Seebeck effect quantifies the entropy carried by a flow of charged particles in absence of thermal gradient. Similarly, the Nernst conductivity, $\alpha _{xy}$, quantifies the entropy carried by a flow of magnetic flux in absence of thermal gradient. The present paper summarizes a picture in which the rough amplitude of the thermoelectric response is given by fundamental units and material-dependent length scales. Therefore, knowledge of material-dependent length scales allows predicting the amplitude of the signal measured by experiments. Specifically, the Nernst conductivity scales with the square of the mean-free-path in metals. Its anomalous component in magnets scales with the square of the fictitious magnetic length. Ephemeral Cooper pairs in the normal state of a superconductor generate a signal, which scales with the square of the superconducting coherence length and smoothly evolves to the signal produced by mobile vortices below the critical temperature.https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/physique/articles/10.5802/crphys.100/Thermoelectricitycorrelated electronstopological materials |
| spellingShingle | Behnia, Kamran What is measured when measuring a thermoelectric coefficient? Comptes Rendus. Physique Thermoelectricity correlated electrons topological materials |
| title | What is measured when measuring a thermoelectric coefficient? |
| title_full | What is measured when measuring a thermoelectric coefficient? |
| title_fullStr | What is measured when measuring a thermoelectric coefficient? |
| title_full_unstemmed | What is measured when measuring a thermoelectric coefficient? |
| title_short | What is measured when measuring a thermoelectric coefficient? |
| title_sort | what is measured when measuring a thermoelectric coefficient |
| topic | Thermoelectricity correlated electrons topological materials |
| url | https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/physique/articles/10.5802/crphys.100/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT behniakamran whatismeasuredwhenmeasuringathermoelectriccoefficient |