Observation of transverse spin Nernst magnetoresistance induced by thermal spin current in ferromagnet/non-magnet bilayers. Issue 1 (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kim, Dong-Jun; Jeon, Chul-Yeon; Choi, Jong-Guk; Lee, Jae Wook; Surabhi, Srivathsava; Jeong, Jong-Ryul; Lee, Kyung-Jin; Park, Byong-Guk
• Is Part Of: Nature communications. Volume 8:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 6
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Biology -- Periodicals; Physical sciences -- Periodicals; 505
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01493-5
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2041-1723

Abstract

Abstract Electric generation of spin current via spin Hall effect is of great interest as it allows an efficient manipulation of magnetization in spintronic devices. Theoretically, pure spin current can be also created by a temperature gradient, which is known as spin Nernst effect. Here, we report spin Nernst effect-induced transverse magnetoresistance in ferromagnet/non-magnetic heavy metal bilayers. We observe that the magnitude of transverse magnetoresistance in the bilayers is significantly modified by heavy metal and its thickness. This strong dependence of transverse magnetoresistance on heavy metal evidences the generation of thermally induced pure spin current in heavy metal. Our analysis shows that spin Nernst angles of W and Pt have the opposite sign to their spin Hall angles. Moreover, our estimate implies that the magnitude of spin Nernst angle would be comparable to that of spin Hall angle, suggesting an efficient generation of spin current by the spin Nernst effect. Pure spin current generated thermally in nonmagnetic materials known as spin Nernst effect has not been demonstrated experimentally. Here, the authors report the observation of spin Nernst effect by studying the thermally-induced transverse magnetoresistance in ferromagnet/non-magnet heavy metal bilayers