Influence of extrinsic skew scattering on the enhancement of the anomalous Nernst coefficient in CoFe thin films by Cu-Ir addition
Phys. Rev. B 113, 184444 – Published 22 May, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/s264-n6q6
Abstract
The contribution of extrinsic skew scattering to the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) provides a potential avenue to enhance transverse thermoelectric response through spin-dependent scattering mechanism. In this study, we show the effect of addition on the enhancement of the anomalous Nernst thermopower in a CoFe thin film. A high-throughput screening based on the lock-in-thermography method for thermal responses induced by the anomalous Ettingshausen effect (AEE), the reciprocal of ANE, across a composition-spread thin film of CoFe- identified the optimal composition for ANE. Based on this screening experiment, we fabricated the specific composition film and measured the electric and thermoelectric transport properties. The value reaches 1.23 µV/K for at room temperature, which is much higher than that for CoFe as well as composition-matched references and , which contain the same amount of only Cu and only Ir, respectively. The scaling analysis on the anomalous Hall effect reveals that the extrinsic skew-scattering contribution is significantly greater for the film compared to others at 300 K. This enhancement in the extrinsic contribution is attributable to the cooperative role of Cu and Ir; Ir acts as a dominant source of skew scattering due to large spin-orbit interaction, while Cu modifies the scattering potential symmetry and accelerates the skew scattering. These results offer an effective strategy for boosting and provide critical insights into extrinsic mechanisms for ANE.