2020/03/06 by Daniel Faílde, Faílde, Daniel, D. Baldomir +1
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #FOS: Physical sciences #Graphene research and applications #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Topological Materials and Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2003.03425
openalex publication_date 2020/03/06 · openalex created_date 2020/03/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
At present, topological insulators are the most efficient thermoelectric materials at room temperature. However, at non-zero temperatures, it seems to arise a conflict between having time-reversal symmetry, which implies minimal entropy, and the Seebeck coefficient, which is the entropy carried by each electric charge unit. This has obliged us to analyze the mathematical and physical background taking into account relativistic phonons besides the electrons within quantum field theory. In this search, we found an approximate expression for the intrinsic topological field b in terms of the Chern number, the Fermi velocity vF and the electron effective mass m, which allows to connect the topologically non-trivial insulator with the trivial one, being consistent with their topological properties and physical robustness. Thanks to this, we demonstrate that for three-dimensional topological insulators in thin-film conditions, among others, phonons have chirality coupling in a novel way to electron dynamics which preserves time-reversal symmetry. This explains the compatibility of the thermoelectricity within topological insulators and shows explicitly how it adapts to the family of topological insulators Bi2Se3.