Thermoelectrics & Topology - Y. Pan
Thermoelectric effects enable the direct conversion between heat and electricity, which offers promising solutions for power generation and solid-state cooling. Moreover, investigations of thermoelectric transport properties are significant for understanding the fundamental transport behavior of quasiparticles in emerging topological materials.
This group mainly focuses on two research directions. First, we are interested in investigating the intrinsic electronic structure and phonon dispersion and their effects on the electrical and thermal transport properties of well-established thermoelectric materials by focusing on their single crystalline forms. Second, we aim at the exploration of emerging topologically non-trivial materials for exotic thermoelectric energy conversion, particularly the longitudinal and transverse thermoelectric responses under the magnetic field. With the first law of materials science, i.e., structure determines properties, our work will be established on the understanding of the relationships between the chemical aspects of crystal structure and defects and the physical aspects of electronic structure, phonon dispersion, and transport properties.
The group has a strong background in crystal growth and transport properties measurements of solid materials. To achieve our goal, we will have extensive collaborations with microstructure characterization, as well as theoretical and experimental studies of electronic structure and phonon dispersion.