Observation of a thermoelectric Hall plateau in the extreme quantum limit.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32098952.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-14819-7 and PMC identifier 7042294.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
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<sub>xy</sub> in the three-dimensional Dirac semimetal ZrTe<sub>5</sub> 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.