Exploring the effect of strong electronic correlations in Seebeck Coefficient of the NdCoO3 compound : Using experimental and DFT+U approach

Abstract

The presence of complexity in the electronic structure of strongly correlated electron system NdCoO3 (NCO) have sparked interest in the investigation of its physical properties. Here, we study the Seebeck coefficient (α) of NCO by using the combined experimental and DFT+U based methods. The experimentally measured Seebeck coefficient is found to be ∼444 μ V/K at 300 K, which decreases to 109.8 μ V/K at 600 K. In order to understand the measured Seebeck coefficient, we have calculated the PDOS and band structure of the NCO. Furthermore, the calculated occupancy of 6.4 for Co 3d orbitals and presence of large unoccupied O 2p states indicate the covalent nature of the bonding. Apart from this, the maximum effective mass is found to be 36.75 (28.13) me for the spin-up (dn) channel in conduction band indicates the n-type behaviour of the compound in contrast to our experimentally observed p-type behaviour. While, the calculated Seebeck coefficient at the temperature-dependent chemical potential (μ) at 300 K shows the p-type behaviour of the compound. Fairly good agreement is seen between the calculated and measured values of α at U ff = 5.5 eV and U dd = 2.7 eV. The maximum power factor (PF) is found to be 47.6 (114.4)×1014 μW K −2cm−1 s −1 at 1100 K, which corresponds to p (n)-type doping of ∼1.4 (0.7)×1021 cm−3. This study suggests the importance of strong on-site electron correlation in understanding the thermoelectric property of the compound