Characterization of topological band structures by the anomalous Nernst effect*

Resolving the structure of energy bands in transport experiments is a major challenge in condensed matter physics and material science. Sometimes, traditional electrical conductance or resistance measurements only provide very small signals, and thus limit the ability to obtain direct band structure information. In this case, it has been proven beneficial to employ thermoelectric measurements which are sensitive to the first derivative of the electrical charactoristics with respect to energy, rather than to its value itself. The common way to access the Berry curvature in topological materials directly via measurements is the anomalous Hall effect, but the corresponding signal can be too small to be detected when the topological band structures lie far off the Fermi level. In this work we propose to investigate topological band structure features utilizing the anomalous Nernst effect , that are elusive in anomalous hall measurements. This work demonstrates that anomalous Nernst measurements can be an effective tool for characterization of topological band structures away from Fremi level.