Leveraging bipolar effect to enhance transverse thermoelectricity in semimetal MgPb for cryogenic heat pumping.

Toward high-performance thermoelectric energy conversion, the electrons and holes must work jointly like two wheels of a cart: if not longitudinally, then transversely. The bipolar effect - the main performance restriction in the traditional longitudinal thermoelectricity, can be manipulated to be a performance enhancer in the transverse thermoelectricity. Here, we demonstrate this idea in semimetal MgPb. At 30 K, a giant transverse thermoelectric power factor as high as 400 μWcmK is achieved, a 3 orders-of-magnitude enhancement than the longitudinal configuration. The resultant specific heat pumping power is ~ 1 Wg, higher than those of existing techniques at 10~100 K. A large number of semimetals and narrow-gap semiconductors making poor longitudinal thermoelectrics due to severe bipolar effect are thus revived to fill the conspicuous gap of thermoelectric materials for solid-state applications.