Thermoelectric materials,capable of converting temperature gradients into electrical power,have been traditionally limited by a trade-off between thermopower and electrical conductivity.This study introduces a novel,b...Thermoelectric materials,capable of converting temperature gradients into electrical power,have been traditionally limited by a trade-off between thermopower and electrical conductivity.This study introduces a novel,broadly applicable approach that enhances both the spin-driven thermopower and the thermoelectric figure-of-merit(zT)without compromising electrical conductivity,using temperature-driven spin crossover.Our approach,supported by both theoretical and experimental evidence,is demonstrated through a case study of chromium doped-manganese telluride,but is not confined to this material and can be extended to other magnetic materials.By introducing dopants to create a high crystal field and exploiting the entropy changes associated with temperature-driven spin crossover,we achieved a significant increase in thermopower,by approximately 136μV K^(-1),representing more than a 200%enhancement at elevated temperatures within the paramagnetic domain.Our exploration of the bipolar semiconducting nature of these materials reveals that suppressing bipolar magnon/paramagnon-drag thermopower is key to understanding and utilizing spin crossover-driven thermopower.These findings,validated by inelastic neutron scattering,X-ray photoemission spectroscopy,thermal transport,and energy conversion measurements,shed light on crucial material design parameters.We provide a comprehensive framework that analyzes the interplay between spin entropy,hopping transport,and magnon/paramagnon lifetimes,paving the way for the development of high-performance spin-driven thermoelectric materials.展开更多
基金funding support by the National Science Foundation(NSF)under grant numbers CBET-2110603the Air Force Office of Scientific Research(AFOSR)under contract number FA9550-12-1-0225supported by the State of North Carolina and the National Science Foundation(award number ECCS-2025064).
文摘Thermoelectric materials,capable of converting temperature gradients into electrical power,have been traditionally limited by a trade-off between thermopower and electrical conductivity.This study introduces a novel,broadly applicable approach that enhances both the spin-driven thermopower and the thermoelectric figure-of-merit(zT)without compromising electrical conductivity,using temperature-driven spin crossover.Our approach,supported by both theoretical and experimental evidence,is demonstrated through a case study of chromium doped-manganese telluride,but is not confined to this material and can be extended to other magnetic materials.By introducing dopants to create a high crystal field and exploiting the entropy changes associated with temperature-driven spin crossover,we achieved a significant increase in thermopower,by approximately 136μV K^(-1),representing more than a 200%enhancement at elevated temperatures within the paramagnetic domain.Our exploration of the bipolar semiconducting nature of these materials reveals that suppressing bipolar magnon/paramagnon-drag thermopower is key to understanding and utilizing spin crossover-driven thermopower.These findings,validated by inelastic neutron scattering,X-ray photoemission spectroscopy,thermal transport,and energy conversion measurements,shed light on crucial material design parameters.We provide a comprehensive framework that analyzes the interplay between spin entropy,hopping transport,and magnon/paramagnon lifetimes,paving the way for the development of high-performance spin-driven thermoelectric materials.
