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On Behind the Physics of the Thermoelectricity of Topological Insulators

Topological Insulators are the best thermoelectric materials involving a sophisticated physics beyond their solid state and electronic structure. We show that exists a topological contribution to the thermoelectric effect that arises between topological and thermal quantum field theories applied at...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Baldomir, Daniel, Faílde, Daniel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6474903/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31004104
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42744-3
Descripción
Sumario:Topological Insulators are the best thermoelectric materials involving a sophisticated physics beyond their solid state and electronic structure. We show that exists a topological contribution to the thermoelectric effect that arises between topological and thermal quantum field theories applied at very low energies. This formalism provides us with a quantized topological mass proportional to the temperature T leading, through an electric potential V, to a Seebeck coefficient where we identify an anomalous contribution that can be associated to the creation of real electron-hole Schwinger’s pairs close to the topological bands. Finally, we find a general expression for the dimensionless figure of merit of these topological materials, considering only the electronic contribution, getting a value of 2.73 that is applicable to the Bi(2)Te(3), for which it was reported a value of 2.4 after reducing its phononic contribution, using only the most basic topological numbers (0 or 1).