Thermal-driven multi-carrier transport in electronic and energy materials

Abstract

Thermal-driven multi-carrier transport is essential for both scientific research and technological applications in electronic, spintronic, and energy conversion devices. This article reviews the fundamentals of phonon, electron, spin, and ion transport driven by temperature gradients in solid-state and soft condensed matter, and the microscopic interactions between energy/charge carriers that can be leveraged for manipulating electrical and thermal transport in energy conversion devices, such as electron–phonon coupling, spin–phonon interaction, and ion–solvent interactions. In coupled electron–phonon transport, we discuss the basics of electron–phonon interactions and their effects on phonon dynamics, thermalization, and nonequilibrium thermal transport. For the phonon–spin interaction, nonequilibrium transport formulation is introduced first, followed by the physics of spin thermoelectric effect and strategies to manipulate them. Contributions to thermal conductivity from magnons as heat carriers are also reviewed. For coupled transport of heat and ions/molecules, we highlight the importance of local molecular configurations that determine the magnitude of the electrochemical gradient, which is the key to improving the efficiency of low-grade heat energy conversion.