Demonstration and imaging of cryogenic magneto-thermoelectric cooling in a van der Waals semimetal

Abstract

Attaining viable thermoelectric cooling at cryogenic temperatures is of considerable fundamental and technological interest for electronics and quantum materials applications. In-device temperature control can provide more efficient and precise thermal environment management compared with conventional global cooling. The application of a current and perpendicular magnetic field gives rise to cooling by generating electron–hole pairs on one side of the sample and to heating due to their recombination on the opposite side, which is known as the Ettingshausen effect. Here we develop nanoscale cryogenic imaging of the magneto-thermoelectric effect and demonstrate absolute cooling and an Ettingshausen effect in exfoliated WTe ₂ Weyl semimetal flakes at liquid He temperatures. In contrast to bulk materials, the cooling is non-monotonic with respect to the magnetic field and device size. Our model of magneto-thermoelectricity in mesoscopic semimetal devices shows that the cooling efficiency and the induced temperature profiles are governed by the interplay between sample geometry, electron–hole recombination length, magnetic field, and flake and substrate heat conductivities. The observations open the way for the direct integration of microscopic thermoelectric cooling and for temperature landscape engineering in van der Waals devices.

Abstract

Cooling efficiency in thermoelectric devices decreases considerably at lower temperatures. Now thermoelectric cooling at cryogenic temperatures is directly imaged in a van der Waals semimetal.