Spin-tunable thermoelectric performance in monolayer chromium pnictides

Historically, finding two-dimensional (2D) magnets is well known to be a difficult task due to the instability against thermal spin fluctuations. Metals are also normally considered poor thermoelectric (TE) materials. Combining intrinsic magnetism in two dimensions with conducting properties, one may expect to get the worst for thermoelectrics. However, we will show this is not always the case. Here, we investigate the spin-dependent TE properties of monolayer chromium pnictides (CrX, where X = P, As, Sb, and Bi) using first-principles calculations of electron- and phonon-energy dispersion, along with the Boltzmann transport formalism under an energy-dependent relaxation time approximation. All the CrX monolayers are dynamically stable and they also exhibit half metallicity with ferromagnetic ordering. Using the spin-valve setup with an antiparallel spin configuration, the half metallicity and ferromagnetism in monolayer CrX enable the manipulation of spin degrees of freedom to tune the TE figure of merit (ZT). At an optimized chemical potential and operating temperature of 500 K, the maximum ZT values (approximate to 0.22, 0.12, and 0.09) with the antiparallel spin-valve setup in CrAs, CrSb, and CrBi improve up to almost twice the original values (ZT approximate to 0.12, 0.08, and 0.05) without the spin-valve configuration. Only in CrP, which is the lightest species and less spin polarized among CrX, the maximum ZT (approximate to 0.34) without the spin-valve configuration is larger than that (approximate to 0.19) with the spin-valve one. We also find that, at 500 K, all the CrX monolayers possess exceptional TE power factors of about 0.02-0.08 W/m K-2, which could be one of the best values among 2D conductors.