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Seebeck-driven transverse thermoelectric generation

Nature Materials volume 20, pages 463–467 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

When a temperature gradient is applied to a closed circuit comprising two different conductors, a charge current is generated via the Seebeck effect1. Here, we utilize the Seebeck-effect-induced charge current to drive ‘transverse’ thermoelectric generation, which has great potential for energy harvesting and heat sensing applications owing to the orthogonal geometry of the heat-to-charge-current conversion2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. We found that, in a closed circuit comprising thermoelectric and magnetic materials, artificial hybridization of the Seebeck effect into the anomalous Hall effect10 enables transverse thermoelectric generation with a similar symmetry to the anomalous Nernst effect11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27. Surprisingly, the Seebeck-effect-driven transverse thermopower can be several orders of magnitude larger than the anomalous-Nernst-effect-driven thermopower, which is clearly demonstrated by our experiments using Co2MnGa/Si hybrid materials. The unconventional approach could be a breakthrough in developing applications of transverse thermoelectric generation.

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Fig. 1: Concept of STTG.
Fig. 2: Model calculations for STTG.
Fig. 3: Experimental demonstration of STTG.
Fig. 4: Experimental demonstration of STTG at zero field.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Isomura, N. Kojima, B. Masaoka, T. T. Sasaki, K. Suzuki and B. S. D. Ch. S. Varaprasad for their support in sample preparation, and T. Seki and M. Murata for valuable discussions. This work was supported in part by JST PRESTO ‘Scientific Innovation for Energy Harvesting Technology’ (grant no. JPMJPR17R5), JST CREST ‘Creation of Innovative Core Technologies for Nano-enabled Thermal Management’ (grant no. JPMJCR17I1) and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Orgnization (NEDO) ‘Mitou’ challenge 2050 (grant no. P14004). A.M. is supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through a Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (JP18J02115).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Weinan Zhou, Kaoru Yamamoto, Asuka Miura, Ryo Iguchi, Yoshio Miura, Ken-ichi Uchida & Yuya Sakuraba

  2. Center for Spintronics Research Network, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

    Yoshio Miura

  3. Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Ken-ichi Uchida

  4. Center for Spintronics Research Network, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Ken-ichi Uchida

  5. PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan

    Yuya Sakuraba

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  1. Weinan Zhou
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Contributions

Y.S. and K.U. conceived the idea, planned and supervised the study and designed the experiments. W.Z., A.M., K.U. and Y.S. prepared the samples. W.Z. collected and analysed the data. K.Y., R.I., Y.M. and K.U. developed the phenomenological formulation. A.M. measured the transport properties of the substrates. W.Z., K.Y., K.U. and Y.S. prepared the manuscript and developed an explanation of the experiments. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ken-ichi Uchida or Yuya Sakuraba.

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Publisher’s note Nature Materials thanks Brian Sales, Ruqian Wu and Anand Bhattacharya for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Transverse thermopower measurements.

a, Schematic illustration of the experimental setup for the measurement of the transverse thermopower. A Peltier module was thermally connected to two Cu blocks. When a charge current was applied to the Peltier module, heat was carried from one side of the module to the other side, leading to a temperature difference between the two Cu blocks. As the sample was bridged between the Cu blocks, the in-plane ∇T was generated along the x direction. To improve the thermal contact between the sample and the Cu blocks and to mimic the ideal thermal boundary condition depicted in Fig. 1c, thermal grease with a high thermal conductivity of > 8 W m−1 K−1 was applied to both ends of the sample. The direction of ∇T can be reversed by changing the sign of the charge current applied to the Peltier module. V1 and V2 represent the outputs of the two nanovoltmeters. b, V1 signals with different charge currents applied to the Peltier module as a function of the temperature difference (∆T) at the corresponding positions of the electrodes, which was measured using an infrared camera. The gray dashed line is a linear fitting of the data. c, H dependence of \(E_{\mathrm{M}}^y\) measured from V2 with different charge currents applied to the Peltier module. H was varied from negative to positive along the direction perpendicular to the sample plane. The colored dashed lines represent the linear extrapolation with the data at high H, where M of Co2MnGa was saturated. The hollow circles denote the values of \(E_{\mathrm{M}}^y\) at zero H obtained from the linear extrapolation. d, \(E_{\mathrm{M}}^y\) at zero H obtained from c plotted as a function of the temperature gradient (∇T). The gray dashed line is a linear fitting of the data.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 2 Size ratio r dependence of Seebeck-driven transverse thermoelectric generation.

The squares with different colors show the transverse thermopower \(\left( {S_{{\mathrm{tot}}}^y} \right)\) experimentally obtained from the samples with different r values, while the curves are calculated by Eq. (2) using the parameters shown in Extended Data Table 1. PA indicates the Co2MnGa film prepared by post annealing. The thermoelectric material for these samples is n-type Si.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 3 Phenomenological formulation of Seebeck-driven transverse thermoelectric generation.

a, Equivalent circuits of the STTG system in the x (left) and y (right) directions. Battery symbols in the left circuit denote the electromotive force generated by SE in the thermoelectric material (gray area) and the magnetic material (aqua area), while the symbol in the right circuit denotes the electromotive force generated by ANE and STTG. The internal resistance in the magnetic material in the x direction includes the feedback effect due to AHE. b, The figure of merit \(\left( {Z_{{\mathrm{tot}}}\bar T} \right)\) calculated using Eq. (16) for the Co2MnGa/n-type-Si and Co2MnGa/Bi2Te3 hybrid materials at the temperature \(\bar T\) = 300 K as a function of r. The black dashed line shows the figure of merit for ANE in Co2MnGa.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 4 Structure and anomalous Hall effect of 50-nm-thick Co2MnGa films deposited at 600 °C.

a, Out-of-plane XRD pattern of the Co2MnGa thin film. The signals within the yellow belt are from the MgO substrate. In addition, only the (002) and (004) peaks from the epitaxial Co2MnGa were observed. b, XRD pattern measured with the film normal tilted out of the plane of the X-ray by 54.7°, where the (111) superlattice peak was clearly observed, indicating the existence of the L21 phase of Co2MnGa. c-e, H dependence of the transverse resistivity (ρyx) for the Hall-bar-shaped Co2MnGa thin film on top of the n-type, p-type, and non-doped Si substrates, measured without the bonding wires, so that the Co2MnGa and Si are electrically insulated. H was applied perpendicular to the sample plane.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 5 Structure and transport characterizations of post-annealed Co2MnGa thin films.

a, Out-of-plane XRD pattern of the 100 and 50-nm-thick Co2MnGa thin films prepared by post annealing. The signals within the yellow belt are from the MgO substrate. In addition, only the (002) and (004) peaks from the epitaxial Co2MnGa were observed. b, XRD pattern measured with the film normal tilted out of the plane of the X-ray by 54.7°, showing the (111) superlattice peak. c,d, H dependence of ρyx for the Hall-bar-shaped 100-nm-thick (c) and 50-nm-thick (d) Co2MnGa thin films on top of the n-type Si substrates, measured without the bonding wires, so that Co2MnGa and Si are electrically insulated. H was applied perpendicular to the sample plane. e,f, H dependence of \(E_{\mathrm{M}}^y\)/∇T in the 100-nm-thick (e) and 50-nm-thick (f) Co2MnGa films with and without the Co2MnGa-Si connection.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 6 Structure and transport characterizations of FePt thin film.

a, Out-of-plane XRD pattern of the FePt thin film. The signals within the yellow belt are from the MgO substrate. The (001) superlattice peak was clearly observed alongside the (002) peak of FePt, indicating the epitaxial growth of L10-ordered FePt. The diffraction peaks from the MgO substrate were subtracted using the result from a bare MgO substrate. b, H dependence of ρyx for the Hall-bar-shaped FePt thin film on top of the n-type Si substrates, measured without the bonding wires, so that FePt and Si are electrically insulated. H was applied perpendicular to the sample plane.

Source data

Extended Data Table 1 List of sample dimensions and transport properties used for estimating Seebeck-driven transverse thermoelectric generation
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Source Data Extended Data Fig. 1

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Source data for Extended Data Fig. 6.

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Zhou, W., Yamamoto, K., Miura, A. et al. Seebeck-driven transverse thermoelectric generation. Nat. Mater. 20, 463–467 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-00884-2

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