Nernst effect of the intermediate valence compound YbAl3: revisiting the thermoelectric properties. (23rd February 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wei, Beipei; Zhang, Jiahao; Sun, Peijie; Wang, Wenquan; Wang, Nanlin; Steglich, Frank
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 27:Number 10(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-02-23
• Subjects: thermopower -- heavy fermion -- Nernst effect; Condensed matter -- Periodicals; Matière condensée -- Périodiques; Vaste stoffen; Vloeistoffen; Natuurkunde; Electronic journals; Computer network resources; 530.4105
• DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/27/10/105601
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0953-8984

Abstract

Abstract: The Nernst effect and thermopower of the prototypical Yb-based intermediate valence compound YbAl3 were investigated. Different to the thermopower whose absolute values are enhanced with increasing temperature and assume a broad maximum at 175 K, the Nernst coefficient of YbAl3 is enhanced only below T ≈ 75 K. While the two quantities in the heavy-fermion compound CeCu2 Si2 were recently found to be related by the anomalous Hall mobility due to the local asymmetric Kondo scattering, this theorem fails when being applied to YbAl3 . Rather, the thermopower of YbAl3 is well described by a simple narrow-band model. We discuss the reason for this in terms of the intermediate valence nature of YbAl3 that is conceptually different from the local Kondo physics.