Thermoelectric and thermal properties of the weakly disordered non-Fermi liquid phase of Luttinger semimetals

We compute the thermoelectric and thermal transport coefficients in the weakly disordered non-Fermi liquid phase of the Luttinger semimetals at zero doping, where the decay rate associated with the (strong) Coulomb interactions is much larger than the electron-impurity scattering rate. To this end, we implement the Mori-Zwanzig memory matrix method, that does not rely on the existence of long-lived quasiparticles in the system. We find that the thermal conductivity at zero electric field scales as (kappa) over bar similar to T-n (with 0 less than or similar to n less than or similar to 1) at low temperatures, whereas the thermoelectric coefficient has the temperature dependence given by alpha similar to T-p (with 1/2 less than or similar to p less than or similar to 3/2). These unconventional properties turn out to be key signatures of this long sought-after non-Fermi liquid state in the Luttinger semimetals, which is expected to emerge in strongly correlated spin-orbit coupled materials like the pyrochlore iridates. Finally, our results indicate that these materials might be good candidates for achieving high figure-of-merit for thermoelectric applications. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this study, we investigated the thermoelectric and thermal transport coefficients in the weakly disordered non-Fermi liquid phase of Luttinger semimetals. We found unconventional characteristics in the thermal conductivity and thermoelectric coefficient, which are key signatures of the long sought-after non-Fermi liquid state.