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Demonstration of efficient Thomson cooler by electronic phase transition

Nature Materials volume 24, pages 34–38 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

In the 1850s, Lord Kelvin predicted the existence of a thermoelectric cooling effect inside a whole material (the Thomson effect) according to thermodynamics1, in addition to the Peltier effect that enables cooling at the junction between dissimilar materials. However, the Thomson effect is usually negligible (ΔT/T < 2%) in conventional thermoelectric materials because the entropy change in charge carriers is fairly small2, leading to the guiding principles for advancing thermoelectric cooling to be based on the framework of the Peltier effect and that the figure of merit ZT should be maximized to optimize performance. Here, we demonstrate a Thomson-effect-enhanced thermoelectric cooler using a large Thomson coefficient (τ) induced by the direct manipulation of charge entropy through an electronic phase transition in YbInCu4. The devices achieve a steady temperature span (ΔT) of >5 K from T = 38 K. Our findings suggest not only another approach to advance thermoelectric coolers in addition to improving ZT but also technologically opens opportunities for solid-state cryogenic cooling applications.

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Fig. 1: Thomson effect enhancing thermoelectric cooling.
Fig. 2: Electronic phase transition.
Fig. 3: Transport properties of YbInCu4.
Fig. 4: Cooling performance.

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Data availability

Data supporting the findings of this study are included in this letter and its Supplementary Information or available from the corresponding authors on request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

Z.C. and Y.P. express deep gratitude to the late J. He at Clemson University, South Carolina, USA, for constructive suggestions for this work. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. T2125008 and 92163203 to Y.P., no. 92263108 to Z.C. and no. 52102292 to X.Z.), the Shanghai Rising-Star Program (grant no. 23QA1409300 to Z.C.) and the Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (grant no. 2021-01-07-00-07-E00096 to Y.P.). We also thank J. Ma and H. Dong for their help on the susceptibility and X-ray diffraction measurements.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Materials Research Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Zhiwei Chen, Xinyue Zhang, Shuxian Zhang, Jun Luo & Yanzhong Pei

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  1. Zhiwei Chen
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  2. Xinyue Zhang
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  3. Shuxian Zhang
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  4. Jun Luo
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  5. Yanzhong Pei
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Contributions

Z.C. and Y.P. conceived the idea and designed the project. Z.C. and X.Z. grew the crystals and performed the structural/composition characterization. Z.C. and S.Z. performed the transport property measurements, prepared the cooling devices and carried out the measurements of cooling performance. Z.C., J.L. and Y.P. analysed the experimental and modelling data. All authors reviewed the results and drafted the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yanzhong Pei.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information

Nature Materials thanks Jeffrey Snyder and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Sections 1–4, Table 1, Figs. 1–10, Discussion and References.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Temperature-normalized Thomson coefficient data (Fig. 1c) and relative temperature span data (Fig. 1d).

Source Data Fig. 2

Inverse magnetic susceptibility data (Fig. 2a), characteristic coupling temperature data (Fig. 2b) and electronic band dispersion data (Fig. 2c).

Source Data Fig. 3

Transport property data (Fig. 3a–f).

Source Data Fig. 4

Temperature profile data (Fig. 4a) and temperature span data (Fig. 4b,c).

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Chen, Z., Zhang, X., Zhang, S. et al. Demonstration of efficient Thomson cooler by electronic phase transition. Nat. Mater. 24, 34–38 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-02039-z

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