When one side of a material is warmer than the other, an electrical voltage can arise. This is the Seebeck effect, used in temperature sensors and thermoelectric generators.
Researchers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research and partner institutions observed a voltage in a single-crystal semiconductor that India’s science ministry says is almost a thousand times above the expected scale for solids.
It is not yet everyday technology. But the surprising discrepancy could make a small temperature difference measurable far more sensitively than before.
In brief
In the Seebeck effect, charge carriers move from a material’s warm side to its cool side. That creates a measurable voltage and underlies many temperature sensors.
Why it matters
The team measured a voltage several hundred to more than a thousand times larger than in typical inorganic semiconductors — a range formerly associated mainly with liquids and ionic gels.
A closer look
The team studied roughly 200-nanometre scandium-nitride films. Magnesium doping produced strongly compensated disorder that changes electrical transport in the crystal.
More facts
At room temperature the material reached more than minus 124.6 millivolts per kelvin. A first light-sensor prototype responded quickly and repeatably, and an Indian patent application is already pending.
How we know
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