Phenomenological analysis of transverse thermoelectric generation and cooling performance in magnetic/thermoelectric hybrid systems

TL;DR

This paper provides a phenomenological analysis of transverse thermoelectric generation and cooling in magnetic/thermoelectric hybrids, demonstrating how material properties influence efficiency and performance.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for evaluating the performance of Seebeck-driven transverse thermoelectric systems and explores optimization strategies for enhanced efficiency.

Findings

STTG can outperform anomalous Nernst effect with optimized materials.

Thermoelectric properties improve with higher Seebeck coefficient and Hall angle.

Cooling performance aligns with reciprocal thermoelectric principles.

Abstract

We phenomenologically calculate the performance of the recently-observed Seebeck-driven transverse thermoelectric generation (STTG) for various systems in terms of the thermopower, power factor, and figure of merit to demonstrate the usefulness of STTG. The STTG system consists of a closed circuit comprising thermoelectric and magnetic materials which exhibit the Seebeck and anomalous Hall effects, respectively. When a temperature gradient is applied to the hybrid system, the Seebeck effect in the thermoelectric material layer generates a longitudinal charge current in the closed circuit and the charge current subsequently drives the anomalous Hall effect in the magnetic material layer. The anomalous Hall voltage driven by the Seebeck effect has a similar symmetry to the transverse thermoelectric conversion based on the anomalous Nernst effect. We find that the thermoelectric properties of STTG can be much better than those of the anomalous Nernst effect by increasing the Seebeck coefficient and anomalous Hall angle of the thermoelectric and magnetic materials, respectively, as well as by optimizing their dimensions. We also formulate the electronic cooling performance in the STTG system, confirming the reciprocal relation for the hybrid transverse thermoelectric conversion.