Mravlje Jernej, Georges Antoine
Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris, France.
Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Jul 15;117(3):036401. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.036401. Epub 2016 Jul 12.
We calculate the in-plane Seebeck coefficient of Sr_{2}RuO_{4} within a framework combining electronic structure and dynamical mean-field theory. We show that its temperature dependence can be interpreted using entropic considerations based on the Kelvin formula and that it provides a meaningful probe of the crossover out of the Fermi liquid regime into an incoherent metal. This crossover proceeds in two stages: The entropy of spin degrees of freedom is released around room temperature, while orbital degrees of freedom remain quenched up to much higher temperatures. This is confirmed by a direct calculation of the corresponding susceptibilities and is a hallmark of "Hund's metals." We also calculate the c-axis thermopower and predict that it exceeds substantially the in-plane one at high temperature, a peculiar behavior which originates from an interlayer "hole-filtering" mechanism.