  While the thermoelectric materials progress based on the engineering of
electronic and phononic characteristics is reaching a plateau, adding the spin
degree of freedom has the potential to open a new landscape for alternative
thermoelectric materials. Here we present the concepts, current understanding,
and guidelines for designing spin-driven thermoelectrics. We show that the
interplay between the spin and heat currents in entropy transport via charge
carriers can offer a strategic path to enhance the electronic thermopower. The
classical antiferromagnetic semiconductor manganese telluride (MnTe) is chosen
as the case study due to its significant spin-mediated thermoelectric
properties. We show that although the spin-disorder scattering reduces the
carrier mobility in magnetic materials, spin entropy, magnon, and paramagnon
carrier drags can dominate over and significantly enhance the thermoelectric
power factor and hence zT. Finally, several guidelines are drawn based on the
current understandings for designing high-performance spin-driven
thermoelectric materials.
