Tuning thermoelectric power factor by crystal-field and spin-orbit couplings in Kondo-lattice materials

We study thermoelectric transport at low temperatures in correlated Kondo insulators, motivated by the recent observation of a high thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) in FeSb2 at T similar to 10K [A. Bentien et al., Eur. Phys. Lett. 80, 17008 (2007)]. Even at room temperature, correlations have the potential to lead to high ZT, as in YbAl3, one of the most widely used thermoelectric metals. At low temperature correlation effects are especially worthy of study because fixed band structures are unlikely to give rise to the very small energy gaps E-g similar to 5 kT necessary for a weakly correlated material to function efficiently at low temperature. We explore the possibility of improving the thermoelectric properties of correlated Kondo insulators through tuning of crystal-field and spin-orbit coupling and present a framework to design more efficient low-temperature thermoelectrics based on our results.