Comments on the thermoelectric power of the f-electron metallic compounds

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the common theoretical explanations for the anomalous thermoelectric power behavior in f-electron metallic compounds, demonstrating that simple scattering models do not account for observed phenomena.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical critique showing that electron-phonon and s-f exchange scattering in Born approximation cannot explain the thermoelectric anomalies.

Findings

Electron-phonon scattering in Born approximation does not cause sign reversal or maxima.

Magnetic s-f scattering in Born approximation does not produce the observed effects.

Combined simple scattering models are insufficient to explain thermoelectric anomalies.

Abstract

The anomalous temperature variation of the thermoelectric power in the f-electron metallic compounds, namely the sign reversal or the maxima, is sometimes interpreted as resulting from the conduction electrons scattering in Born approximation on the acoustic phonons and on the localized spins in the s-f exchange interaction. The experimenters rely on the results of some theoretical works where such thermoelectric power behavior was obtained within these simple models. In the present paper we prove that neither the electron-phonon scattering nor the magnetic s-f scattering in the Born approximation (nor both of them) do lead to the effects mentioned above.