Large thermoelectric figure of merit for 3D topological Anderson insulators via line dislocation engineering

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that line dislocation engineering in 3D topological Anderson insulators can significantly enhance thermoelectric efficiency, reaching high ZT values at room temperature, with potential for nano-device heat management.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach of using dislocation engineering to boost thermoelectric performance in topological insulators, highlighting the role of topologically-protected states.

Findings

High ZT values (>1) achievable at room temperature.

Dislocation density correlates with thermoelectric enhancement.

Potential applications in nano-device heat management.

Abstract

We study the thermoelectric properties of three-dimensional topological Anderson insulators with line dislocations. We show that at high densities of dislocations the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT can be dominated by one-dimensional topologically-protected conducting states channeled through the lattice screw dislocations in the topological insulator materials with a non-zero time-reversal-invariant momentum such as Bi_{1-x}Sb_x. When the chemical potential does not exceed much the mobility edge the ZT at room temperatures can reach large values, much higher than unity for reasonable parameters, hence making this system a strong candidate for applications in heat management of nano-devices.