Thermoelectric study of room-temperature ferromagnet chromium telluride

Materials with intrinsic room temperature ferromagnetism are attractive for spintronics and nonvolatile memory. In such systems, time reversal symmetry breaking yields an anomalous Hall effect (AHE) whose magnitude can be amplified by band topology, for example by nonzero Berry curvature. Chromium telluride compounds have therefore drawn significant interest for their high Curie temperatures (T_c > 300 K) [1,2], and a large intrinsic AHE has been proposed in this family. Moreover, because the Nernst response probes the energy derivative of the Hall conductivity at the Fermi level (Mott relation), Berry curvature effects can be further amplified in the anomalous Nernst channel. Here we report thermoelectric measurements on bulk chromium telluride and the observation of a large anomalous Nernst effect at room temperature. We show that chromium telluride offers an ideal intrinsically magnetic platform for studying the interplay of magnetic dynamics with topological physics and for developing a new generation of spintronic and thermoelectric devices.

[1] L.-Z. Zhang et al., Physical Review B 101, 214413 (2020).

[2] A. Wang et al., Physical Review B 108, 094429 (2023).