Thermoelectricity in correlated narrow-gap semiconductors

Abstract

We review many-body effects, their microscopic origin, as well as their impact onto thermoelectricity in correlated narrow-gap semiconductors. Members of this class---such as FeSi and FeSb${}_2$---display an unusual temperature dependence in various observables: insulating with large thermopowers at low temperatures, they turn bad metals at temperatures much smaller than the size of their gaps. This insulator-to-metal crossover is accompanied by spectral weight-transfers over large energies in the optical conductivity and by a gradual transition from activated to Curie-Weiss-like behaviour in the magnetic susceptibility. We show a retrospective of the understanding of these phenomena, discuss the relation to heavy-fermion Kondo insulators---such as Ce${}_3$Bi${}_4$Pt${}_3$ for which we present new results---and propose a general classification of paramagnetic insulators. From the latter FeSi emerges as an orbital-selective Kondo insulator. Focussing on intermetallics such as silicides, antimonides, skutterudites, and Heusler compounds we showcase successes and challenges for the realistic simulation of transport properties in the presence of electronic correlations. Further, we advert to new avenues in which electronic correlations may contribute to the improvement of thermoelectric performance.

90 pages, 51 figures

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Cited by in corpus (29)

• Prediction of unconventional magnetism in doped FeSb2
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• Giant spontaneous Hall effect in a nonmagnetic Weyl-Kondo semimetal
• From Trivial Kondo Insulator Ce${}_3$Pt${}_3$Bi${}_4$ to Topological Nodal-line Semimetal Ce${}_3$Pd${}_3$Bi${}_4$
• Metallic surface states in a correlated d-electron topological Kondo insulator candidate FeSb2
• Anisotropic Correlated Electronic Structure of Colossal Thermopower Marcasite FeSb${}_2$
• Interaction-Assisted Reversal of Thermopower with Ultracold Atoms
• Controlling electronic topology in a strongly correlated electron system
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• Isoelectronic tuning of heavy fermion systems: Proposal to synthesize Ce3Sb4Pd3
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