Thermal characterization for quantum materials

What is it about?

Quantum materials exhibit intriguing physical properties arising from the quantum mechanical properties of their constituent particles or quasi-particles. In this review, we introduce several thermal characterization methods including specific heat, thermal conductivity, thermal Hall effect, and Nernst effect measurements for probing unique properties of quantum materials.

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Photo by kk on Unsplash

Photo by kk on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Thermal characterization can provide critical information that cannot be obtained from electrical measurements, especially in the case of some insulating quantum materials. Compared with electrical measurements, thermal characterization has the distinct advantages of detecting charge-neutral excitations such as lattice vibrations and spin excitations, and providing more information about density, mobility and scattering of heat carriers. In this review, we discuss several recent research progress on thermal measurements of quantum materials, including probing the existence of quantum spin liquids, Berry curvature, chiral anomaly, coupling between heat carriers, quantum phase transitions and quasi-particle hydrodynamics. These findings lead to a better understanding of exotic physical properties in quantum materials, which can enable the development of novel applications based on quantum materials, such as energy conversion, quantum computing, and quantum information processing.