First-principles study of anomalous nernst effect in 2D ferromagnetic CrP

Anomalous Nernst effect can be assigned to design high-performance thermoelectric materials. This effect can be derived from anomalous Hall conductivity as a function of energy that is directly linked to the Berry curvature of the system. We study the anomalous transport properties in monolayer chromium pnictide, classified as 2D ferromagnetic metal, by first-principles calculation. The electronic structure of the system gives a nonzero Berry curvature in the ground magnetic state, leading to the maximum value of the anomalous Hall conductivity of 0.4 e2/h at 1 eV above the Fermi level and the anomalous Nernst conductivity of 3×10−3 A/mK at 300 K. The spin-orbit coupling in this system does not affect the band structure but can distort the Berry curvature, resulting in the optimized magnitude of the anomalous Hall and Nernst conductivity close to the Fermi level. Therefore, chromium pnictides offer a high degree of freedom in designing thermoelectric devices based on the anomalous Nernst effect.