2021Physical Review B

Giant Nernst effect and field-enhanced transversal zNT in ZrTe₅

Peipei Wang, Chang-woo Cho, Fangdong Tang, Peng Wang, Wenjie Zhang, Mingquan He, Genda Gu, Xiaosong Wu, Yonghong Shao, Liyuan Zhang

Physical Review B · 103, 045203 (2021)

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DOI 10.1103/physrevb.103.045203

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Introduction

The authors measure a large, strongly direction-dependent Nernst response in ZrTe₅. Combining thermopower with the other transport coefficients lets them estimate the transverse thermoelectric figure of merit in field.

A closer reading

A large transverse voltage and efficient energy conversion are different claims. Compare the Nernst coefficient with the full figure of merit, and keep field strength and crystal orientation fixed when judging the reported enhancement.