Yuanhua Zheng

Magnon-drag thermopower and Nernst coefficient in Fe, Co and Ni

Magnon drag is shown to dominate the thermopower of elemental Fe from 2 to 80 K and of elemental Co from 150 to 600 K; it is also shown to contribute to the thermopower of elemental Ni from 50 to 500 K. Two theoretical models are presented for magnon-drag thermopower. One is a hydrodynamic theory based purely on nonrelativistic, Galilean, spin-preserving electron-magnon scattering. The second is based on spin-motive forces, where the thermopower results from the electric current pumped by the dynamic magnetization associated with a magnon heat flux. In spite of their very different microscopic origins, the two give similar predictions for pure metals at low temperature, allowing us to semiquantitatively explain the observed thermopower of elemental Fe and Co without adjustable parameters. We also find that magnon drag may contribute to the thermopower of Ni. A spin-mixing model is presented that describes the magnon-drag contribution to the anomalous Nernst effect in Fe, again enabling a semiquantitative match to the experimental data without fitting parameters. Our paper suggests that particle nonconserving processes may play an important role in other types of drag phenomena and also gives a predicative theory for improving metals as thermoelectric materials.

Demonstration of high mobility and quantum transport in modulation-doped β-(AlxGa1-x)2O3/Ga2O3 heterostructures

In this work, we demonstrate a high mobility two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) formed at the β-(AlxGa1-x)2O3/Ga2O3 interface through modulation doping. Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations were observed in the modulation-doped β-(AlxGa1-x)2O3/Ga2O3 structure, indicating a high-quality electron channel formed at the heterojunction interface. The formation of the 2DEG channel was further confirmed by the weak temperature dependence of the carrier density, and the peak low temperature mobility was found to be 2790 cm2/Vs, which is significantly higher than that achieved in bulk-doped Beta-phase Gallium Oxide (β-Ga2O3). The observed SdH oscillations allowed for the extraction of the electron effective mass in the (010) plane to be 0.313 ± 0.015 m0 and the quantum scattering time to be 0.33 ps at 3.5 K. The demonstrated modulation-doped β-(AlxGa1-x)2O3/Ga2O3 structure lays the foundation for future exploration of quantum physical phenomena and semiconductor device technologies based on the β-Ga2O3 material s...

BiSb and spin-related thermoelectric phenomena

This article reviews the factors limiting the figure of merit zT of conventional thermoelectrics especially at cryogenic temperatures and then highlights modern approaches used to increase zT below 200 K. Two type of materials are discussed. The first are BiSb alloys, relatively conventional thermoelectrics in which the zT is enhanced by using resonant levels. The second is the spin- Seebeck effect (SSE), a new solid-state energy conversion technology. Classical thermoelectric and SSE physics are combined to provide new concepts, like magnon-drag, in which we hope to increase the performance of solid-state coolers by exploiting the spin degree of freedom.

Scalable Nernst thermoelectric power using a coiled galfenol wire

The Nernst thermopower usually is considered far too weak in most metals for waste heat recovery. However, its transverse orientation gives it an advantage over the Seebeck effect on non-flat surfaces. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the scalable generation of a Nernst voltage in an air-cooled metal wire coiled around a hot cylinder. In this geometry, a radial temperature gradient generates an azimuthal electric field in the coil. A Galfenol (Fe

Thermal spin transport and energy conversion

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High Mobility 2DEG in modulation-doped \b{eta}-(AlxGa1-x)2O3/Ga2O3 heterostructures

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Magnon drag thermopower of the antiferromagnetic semiconductor Li doped MnTe

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Portable Combustion Generator with Integrated Thermoelectric/Heat Exchanger

) wire is wrapped around a cartridge heater, and the voltage drop across the wire is measured as a function of axial magnetic field. As expected, the Nernst voltage scales linearly with the length of the wire. Based on heat conduction and fluid dynamic equations, finite-element method is used to calculate the temperature gradient across the Galfenol wire and determine the Nernst coefficient. A giant Nernst coefficient of -2.6

Demonstration of Scalable Nernst Voltage in a Coiled Galfenol Wire

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Thermopower and Anomalous Nernst coefficients of binary ferromagnetic alloys Fe

V/KT at room temperature is estimated, in agreement with measurements on bulk Galfenol. We expect that the giant Nernst effect in Galfenol arises from its magnetostriction, presumably through enhanced magnon-phonon coupling. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of a transverse thermoelectric generator capable of scalable output power from non-flat heat sources.