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The role of spin in thermoelectricity

Nature Reviews Physics volume 5, pages 466–482 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Thermoelectric (TE) materials and devices are crucial for renewable thermal-to-electrical energy conversion applications. The optimization of TE performance can be achieved by manipulating four fundamental degrees of freedom: charge, lattice, spin and orbital. Historically, most strategies to improve TE performance focus on phonon and electron charge transport properties. However, in the past 15 years, the field of spin caloritronics, which explores the interplay among heat, charge and spin, has emerged. The inclusion of spins has introduced conceptually innovative mechanisms and versatile functionalities for solid-state thermal-to-electrical energy conversion. Here, we review the recent theoretical and experimental progress in the field of spin caloritronics. We discuss the strategic role of spin-related mechanisms in improving charge-based TE performance and the recent developments in the novel magneto-TE and thermospin effects as well as their potential applications. This Review offers a perspective for understanding the role of spin in TE, designing new high-efficiency TE materials and developing new TE technology beyond the conventional framework.

Key points

  • The intercoupled transport of charge, heat and spins has resulted in an emerging field known as spin caloritronics, which combines the spintronics and thermoelectrics (TEs). The additional spin degrees of freedom offer conceptually innovative mechanisms and functionalities for solid-state thermal-to-electrical energy conversion.

  • Various spin-related effects offer new mechanisms for optimizing the charge-based TE performance beyond the well-known S–σ anticorrelation limit, such as Rashba spin-split effect, Kondo effect, spin entropy, spin fluctuation, magnon-drag effect and magnetic nanocomposite effect.

  • Spin-dependent magneto-TE effects, such as longitudinal magneto-Seebeck–Peltier effect and transverse Nernst–Ettingshausen effect, provide a new TE conversion technology that can be controlled by spin/magnetism.

  • The discovery of various heat–spin–charge interconversion effects has led to the development of versatile TE converters with unique driven principles, geometric symmetries and novel functionalities that are not found in conventional TEs. The thermospin effects include the spin Seebeck–Peltier effect and spin-dependent Seebeck–Peltier effect.

  • Spin caloritronics provides new TE functionalities and application prospects, such as transverse TE generation, thermal energy harvesting and cooling, heat flux sensing and spin sources for spintronics.

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Fig. 1: Conversion relationship among charge, spin and heat currents.
Fig. 2: The Rashba effect and Kondo effects for improving charge-based thermoelectric performance.
Fig. 3: Spin-entropy-enhanced thermopower.
Fig. 4: Enhancement of thermoelectric performance by spin fluctuation and the magnon-drag effect.
Fig. 5: Superparamagnetic-transition-enhanced and magnetic-transition-enhanced thermoelectric performance in magnetic nanocomposite materials.
Fig. 6: Thermoelectric generation with spin Seebeck devices.
Fig. 7: Transverse thermoelectric generation by combining the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect and the anomalous Nernst effect.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through ARC Discovery projects (DP230102221, X.L.W. and DP210101436, C.Z.), ARC Professorial Future Fellowship Project (FT130100778, X.L.W.), ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET, CE170100039), Basic Science Centre Project of NSFC (No. 51788104) and a Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) Grant (LE120100069, X.L.W.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Crystal Materials, Institute of Functional Crystals, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, China

    Guangsai Yang & Ning Ye

  2. Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, Australian Institute for Innovative Materials, University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Guangsai Yang, Lina Sang, Chao Zhang & Xiaolin Wang

  3. ARC Center of Excellence in Future Low Energy Electronics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Guangsai Yang, Lina Sang & Xiaolin Wang

  4. School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Alex Hamilton

  5. ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Alex Hamilton

  6. School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Michael S. Fuhrer

  7. ARC Center of Excellence in Future Low Energy Electronics Technologies, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Michael S. Fuhrer

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  1. Guangsai Yang
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G.G. and X.W. designed the project and developed the outline of this work. All authors contributed to the discussion of content and the preparation of the manuscript in collaboration.

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Correspondence to Xiaolin Wang.

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Yang, G., Sang, L., Zhang, C. et al. The role of spin in thermoelectricity. Nat Rev Phys 5, 466–482 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00604-0

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