Dirac dispersion generates unusually large Nernst effect in Weyl semimetals

Watzman SJ, Mccormick TM, Shekhar C, Wu SC, Sun Y, Prakash A, Felser C, Trivedi N, Heremans JP (2018)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2018

Journal

Physical Review B American Physical Society

Book Volume: 97

Article Number: 161404

Journal Issue: 16

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.97.161404

Abstract

Weyl semimetals contain linearly dispersing electronic states, offering interesting features in transport yet to be thoroughly explored thermally. Here we show how the Nernst effect, combining entropy with charge transport, gives a unique signature for the presence of Dirac bands and offers a diagnostic to determine if trivial pockets play a role in this transport. The Nernst thermopower of NbP exceeds its conventional thermopower by a 100-fold, and the temperature dependence of the Nernst effect has a pronounced maximum. The charge-neutrality condition dictates that the Fermi level shifts with increasing temperature toward the energy that has the minimum density of states (DOS). In NbP, the agreement of the Nernst and Seebeck data with a model that assumes this minimum DOS resides at the Dirac points is taken as strong experimental evidence that the trivial (non-Dirac) bands play no role in high-temperature transport.

Involved external institutions

Ohio State University US United States (USA) (US) Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Physik fester Stoffe (MPI CPfS) / Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Watzman, S.J., Mccormick, T.M., Shekhar, C., Wu, S.-C., Sun, Y., Prakash, A.,... Heremans, J.P. (2018). Dirac dispersion generates unusually large Nernst effect in Weyl semimetals. Physical Review B, 97(16). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.161404

MLA:

Watzman, Sarah J., et al. "Dirac dispersion generates unusually large Nernst effect in Weyl semimetals." Physical Review B 97.16 (2018).

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