Nature Materials, Vol.20, No.4, 463-+, 2021
Seebeck-driven transverse thermoelectric generation
When a temperature gradient is applied to a closed circuit comprising two different conductors, a charge current is generated via the Seebeck effect(1). Here, we utilize the Seebeck-effect-induced charge current to drive 'transverse' thermoelectric generation, which has great potential for energy harvesting and heat sensing applications owing to the orthogonal geometry of the heat-to-charge-current conversion(2-9). We found that, in a closed circuit comprising thermoelectric and magnetic materials, artificial hybridization of the Seebeck effect into the anomalous Hall effect(10) enables transverse thermoelectric generation with a similar symmetry to the anomalous Nernst effect(11-27). Surprisingly, the Seebeck-effect-driven transverse thermopower can be several orders of magnitude larger than the anomalous-Nernst-effect-driven thermopower, which is clearly demonstrated by our experiments using Co2MnGa/Si hybrid materials. The unconventional approach could be a breakthrough in developing applications of transverse thermoelectric generation.