arXiv subjects

Illia Serhiienko

Publications and source records attributed to Illia Serhiienko.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Tracking flat bands via phonon-mediated interband scattering

Flat-band (FB) systems offer a fertile platform for realizing exotic correlated and topological phases, yet central challenges remain in tuning FBs towards the Fermi level $E_\text{F}$ and in understanding their impact on electronic transport. Identifying how close a FB lies to $E_\text{F}$ normally requires advanced spectroscopic probes or extensive doping studies hindering fast screening of promising candidates. Here, we show that standard electrical resistivity measurements already contain a clear and universal fingerprint of the proximity of a FB to $E_\text{F}$: A characteristic curvature in the temperature-dependent resistivity at high temperatures, i.e., sublinear (superlinear) behavior when EF lies within (away from) the FB states. Within a phenomenological model, we can attribute this response to the rapid change in scattering phase space associated with interband transitions from dispersive to FB states. Notably, this characteristic emerges independently of microscopic details, such as the electron-phonon coupling strength, as confirmed by comparison with ab initio electron-phonon transport calculations. We validate this mechanism across several FB materials$-$including kagome, pyrochlore and Cu$_3$Au-type intermetallics$-$by combining high-temperature resistivity measurements with a modified Bloch-Grüneisen analysis. Our results establish a simple and broadly applicable method to locate FBs via electronic transport, enabling rapid screening of promising FB materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Breaking the Wiedemann-Franz limit in thermoelectrics via separated flat bands

Controlling the charge and spin degrees of freedom of electrons in solids has been at the heart of condensed-matter science for centuries. One hallmark of metallic conduction is the Wiedemann-Franz law which implies that a moving charge carries entropy. Despite centuries of dedicated research, disentangling charge and heat transport has remained an unsolved issue so far. Here we present a direct route to reduce thermal conductivity of conduction electrons with respect to their electrical conductivity via energy-dependent scattering. By constraining electronic transport to a boxcar-type distribution asymmetrically around the Fermi energy, a large Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity can be realized simultaneously while electronic heat conduction is suppressed. Based on the case of monolayer Ni$_3$In, which comprises two flat bands around the Fermi energy, we propose flat-band systems as a promising, tunable platform for scattering phase space engineering. Besides this novel approach, our large-scale assessment of $\approx 5\times 10^4$ data sets in a 'Wiedemann-Franz plot' of $zT$ vs. $S^2$ provides an effective tool to identify reports of $L\ll L_0$ from literature - pointing towards either new and interesting physical mechanisms - or overlooked measurement artifacts.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

$P$-type Ru$_2$Ti$_{1-x}$Hf$_x$Si full-Heusler bulk thermoelectrics with $zT = 0.7$

Heusler compounds have emerged as important thermoelectric materials due to their combination of promising electronic transport properties, mechanical robustness and chemical stability -- key aspects for practical device integration. While a wide range of XYZ-type half-Heusler compounds have been studied for high-temperature applications, X$_2$YZ-type full-Heuslers, often characterized by narrower band gaps, may offer potential advantages at different temperature regimes but remain less explored. In this work, we report the discovery of $p$-type Ru$_2$Ti$_{1-x}$Hf$_x$Si full-Heusler thermoelectrics, exhibiting a high figure of merit $zT \sim 0.7$ over a broad range of temperatures $700-1000$ K. These results not only represent the largest values known to date among full-Heusler materials but confirm earlier theoretical predictions that $p$-type Ru$_2$TiSi systems would be superior to their $n$-type counterparts. Moreover, using a two-band model, we unveil electronic structure changes induced by the Hf substitution at the Ti site and outline strategies to further improve $zT$ up to $zT > 1$. Our findings highlight the untapped potential of new semiconducting full-Heusler phases and the crucial need for continued exploration of this rich materials class for thermoelectric applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Decoupled charge and heat transport for high-performance Fe$_2$VAl composite thermoelectrics

Decoupling charge and heat transport is essential for optimizing thermoelectric materials. Strategies to inhibit lattice-driven heat transport, however, also compromise carrier mobility, limiting the performance of most thermoelectrics, including Fe$_2$VAl Heusler compounds. Here, we demonstrate an innovative approach, which bypasses this tradeoff: via liquid-phase sintering, we incorporate the archetypal topological insulator Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_{x}$ between Fe$_2$V$_{0.95}$Ta$_{0.1}$Al$_{0.95}$ grains. Structural investigations alongside extensive thermoelectric and magneto-transport measurements reveal distinct modifications in the microstructure, and a reduced lattice thermal conductivity and enhanced carrier mobility are simultaneously found. This yields a huge performance boost $-$ far beyond the effective-medium limit $-$ and results in one of the highest figure of merits among both half- and full-Heusler compounds, $z\approx 1.6\times 10^{-3}\,$K$^{-1}$ ($zT\approx 0.5$) at 295 K. Our findings highlight the potential of secondary phases to decouple charge and heat transport and call for more advanced theoretical studies of multiphase composites.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance of $p$-type BiSbTe Through Incorporation of Magnetic CrSb

There is evidence that magnetism can potentially increase the thermopower of materials, most likely due to magnon scattering, suggesting the incorporation of intrinsic magnetic semiconductors in non-magnetic thermoelectric materials. Here, samples of $\textit{p}$-type Bi$_{0.5}$Sb$_{1.5}$Te$_{3}$ with 10 at.% excess Te are ball-milled with varying ratio of the antiferromagnetic semiconductor CrSb (0, 0.125, 0.5, and 1 wt.%) to prepare bulk samples by spark plasma sintering technique. The thermopower of samples containing CrSb is increased due to an increase in the effective mass of the charge carriers, indicating that there is a drag effect originating from the magnetic particles. However, this was at the expense of reduced electrical conductivity caused by reduced charge carrier mobility. While overall only marginal improvements in power factors were observed, these samples exhibited significantly lower thermal conductivity compared to the single-phase material. As a result, a peak $\textit{zT}$ value of $\sim$1.4 was achieved at 325 K for the sample with 0.125 wt.% CrSb. These results highlight the potential of incorporating magnetic secondary phases to enhance the thermoelectric performance of materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

High thermoelectric power factor through topological flat bands

Thermoelectric (TE) materials are useful for applications such as waste heat harvesting or efficient and targeted cooling. While various strategies towards superior thermoelectrics through a reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity have been developed, a path to enhance the power factor is pressing. Here, we report large power factors up to 5 mW m$^{-1}$ K$^{-2}$ at room temperature in the kagome metal Ni$_3$In$_{1-x}$Sn$_x$. This system is predicted to feature almost dispersionless flat bands in conjunction with highly dispersive Dirac-like bands in its electronic structure around the Fermi energy $E_\text{F}$ [L. Ye et al., Nature Physics 1-5 (2024)]. Within this study, we experimentally and theoretically showcase that tuning this flat band precisely below $E_\text{F}$ by chemical doping $x$ boosts the Seebeck coefficient and power factor, as highly mobile charge carriers scatter into the flat-band states. Our work demonstrates the prospect of engineering extremely flat and highly dispersive bands towards the Fermi energy in kagome metals and introduces topological flat bands as a novel tuning knob for thermoelectrics.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Influence of Bi substitution with rare-earth elements on the transport properties of BiCuSeO oxyselenides

In this study, we demonstrate that introducing of rare-earth elements, $R$ = La or Pr, into the Bi-O charge reservoir layer of BiCuSeO leads to an increase of both, the charge carrier concentration and the effective mass. Although the charge carrier mobility slightly decreases upon Bi$^{3+}$ to $R^{3+}$ substitution, the electronic transport properties are significantly improved in a broad temperature range from 100 K to 800 K. In particular, the electrical resistivity decreases by two times, while the Seebeck coefficient drops from 323 $μ$V K$^{-1}$ to 238 $μ$V K$^{-1}$ at 800 K. Thus, a power factor of nearly 3 $μ$W cm$^{-1}$ K$^{-2}$ is achieved for Bi$_{0.92}$La$_{0.08}$CuSeO sample at 800 K. Meanwhile, a noticeable decrease of the lattice thermal conductivity is observed for the substituted samples, which can be attributed to the enhanced point defect scattering mostly originated from atomic mass fluctuations between $R$ and Bi. Ultimately, a maximum $zT$ value of nearly 0.34 at 800 K is obtained for the Bi$_{0.92}$La$_{0.08}$CuSeO sample, which is ~30% higher than that of pristine BiCuSeO.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Thermoelectric properties of Sm-doped BiCuSeO oxyselenides fabricated by two-step reactive sintering

Among layered oxygen-containing compounds, BiCuSeO is one of the most promising candidates for thermoelectric applications due to its intrinsically low thermal conductivity and good thermal stability. However, the rather poor electrical conductivity of pristine BiCuSeO hinders its potential. Further enhancement of the thermoelectric performance by single doping at Bi site is limited mainly due to dramatic decrease of carrier mobility. Thus, new strategies, such as dual doping or doping with variable-valence elements seem to be promising. Along with that, the development of a fast and scalable synthesis route is essential for the industrial-scale fabrication of thermoelectric materials. Hence, in this paper, Bi$_{1-x}$Sm$_{x}$CuSeO samples (0 $\leq$ $x$ $\leq$ 0.08) have been synthesized with a simple and scalable reactive sintering process. For comparison, Bi$_{1-x}$Sm$_{x}$CuSeO oxyselenides were also obtained by the conventional solid-state route. Our results highlight that, Sm for Bi substitution increases the electrical conductivity by 1.5 - 2 times and decreases the Seebeck coefficient by ~1.4 times at 873 K for both series. Overall, considering the increase of lattice thermal conductivity upon doping and not optimized power factor, the figure of merit $zT$ is reducing upon doping.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Ultrafast synthesis of Pb-doped BiCuSeO oxyselenides by high-energy ball milling

We report on the direct ultrafast synthesis of Pb-doped BiCuSeO oxyselenides by high-energy ball milling. We show that, contrary to the mechanical alloying sintering routes used in the previous reports which require 7 - 13 hours to fabricate the BiCuSeO phase in powder form, this synthesis technique enables us to obtain pure phase materials at room temperature under air with milling time less than 60 minutes.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗