Resolving the structure of energy bands in transport experiments is a major challenge in condensed matter physics and material science. Sometimes, however, 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 density of states with respect to energy, rather than to its value itself. Due to the large interest in topological effects these days, it is important to identify a similar concept for detecting the Berry curvature in a band structure. Nowadays, the common way to access the Berry curvature directly via measurements is the anomalous Hall effect, but the corresponding signal can be too small to be detected when the topological features of the band structure lie too far off the Fermi level. In this Rapid Communication, we propose to investigate topological band-structure features utilizing the anomalous Nernst effect which is tied to the derivative of the anomalous Hall effect with respect to energy. Thereby, also signatures become resolvable, which are elusive in anomalous Hall measurements. We demonstrate the underlying mechanisms for a minimal effective four-band model and exemplary for the real Heusler compounds ${\mathrm{Co}}_2\mathrm{Fe}X$ ($X=\text{Ge},\text{Sn}$), which host topological nodal lines about 100 meV above the Fermi level. This work demonstrates that anomalous Nernst measurements can be an effective tool for the characterization of topological band structures, both at room temperature and in the quantum transport regime at cryogenic temperatures.

• Received 17 July 2018
• Revised 13 November 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.241106