Nature Communications (Apr 2018)

Large thermoelectric power factor from crystal symmetry-protected non-bonding orbital in half-Heuslers

  • Jiawei Zhou,
  • Hangtian Zhu,
  • Te-Huan Liu,
  • Qichen Song,
  • Ran He,
  • Jun Mao,
  • Zihang Liu,
  • Wuyang Ren,
  • Bolin Liao,
  • David J. Singh,
  • Zhifeng Ren,
  • Gang Chen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03866-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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The intrinsic origin of high-power factors observed in half-Heusler alloys remains elusive, limiting the design of new thermoelectric materials. In this work, the authors reveal it is due to weakened electron–acoustic phonon coupling, originating from crystal symmetry protection of non-bonding orbitals.