Paper detail

Universal thermopower of bad metals

"Bad metals" have a large linear resistivity at high-T that is universally seen in oxides close to the Mott-Hubbard insulating phase. They also have an universal thermopower alpha(T): (i) at very low doping (lightly doped) alpha(T) has a pronounced low-T peak that shifts to higher-T with doping; (ii) at moderate doping (underdoped) alpha(T) has a small low-T peak that shifts to lower-T with doping and has a high-T sign change; and (iii) at the highest doping (overdoped) alpha(T) is negative and depends monotonically on T. Here we show that the simplified Hubbard model provides an easy to understand description of this phenomena due to the universal form for the chemical potential versus T for doped Mott insulators and the applicability of the Kelvin formula for the thermopower.