Magnons versus electrons in thermal spin transport through metallic interfaces

M Beens, JP Heremans, Y Tserkovnyak…�- Journal of Physics D�…, 2018 - iopscience.iop.org
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2018iopscience.iop.org
We develop a theory for spin transport in magnetic metals that treats the contribution of
magnons and electrons on equal footing. As an application, we consider thermally-driven
spin injection across an interface between a magnetic metal and a normal metal, ie the spin-
dependent Seebeck effect. We show that the ratio between magnonic and electronic
contribution scales as, with the Fermi temperature TF and the Curie temperature T C. Since,
typically,, the magnonic contribution may dominate the thermal spin injection, even though�…
Abstract
We develop a theory for spin transport in magnetic metals that treats the contribution of magnons and electrons on equal footing. As an application, we consider thermally-driven spin injection across an interface between a magnetic metal and a normal metal, ie the spin-dependent Seebeck effect. We show that the ratio between magnonic and electronic contribution scales as, with the Fermi temperature T F and the Curie temperature T C. Since, typically,, the magnonic contribution may dominate the thermal spin injection, even though the interface is more transparent for electronic spin current.
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