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Jain R, Stanley M, Bose A, Richardella AR, Zhang XS, Pillsbury T, Muller DA, Samarth N, Ralph DC. Thermally generated spin current in the topological insulator Bi 2Se 3. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadi4540. [PMID: 38091392 PMCID: PMC10848729 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi4540] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2024]
Abstract
We present measurements of thermally generated transverse spin currents in the topological insulator Bi2Se3, thereby completing measurements of interconversions among the full triad of thermal gradients, charge currents, and spin currents. We accomplish this by comparing the spin Nernst magneto-thermopower to the spin Hall magnetoresistance for bilayers of Bi2Se3/CoFeB. We find that Bi2Se3 does generate substantial thermally driven spin currents. A lower bound for the ratio of spin current density to thermal gradient is [Formula: see text] = (4.9 ± 0.9) × 106 [Formula: see text], and a lower bound for the magnitude of the spin Nernst ratio is -0.61 ± 0.11. The spin Nernst ratio for Bi2Se3 is the largest among all materials measured to date, two to three times larger compared to previous measurements for the heavy metals Pt and W. Strong thermally generated spin currents in Bi2Se3 can be understood via Mott relations to be due to an overall large spin Hall conductivity and its dependence on electron energy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rakshit Jain
- Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
- School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | - Max Stanley
- Department of Physics and Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Arnab Bose
- Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
- School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | - Anthony R. Richardella
- Department of Physics and Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Xiyue S. Zhang
- School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | - Timothy Pillsbury
- Department of Physics and Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - David A. Muller
- School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
- Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | - Nitin Samarth
- Department of Physics and Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
| | - Daniel C. Ralph
- Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
- Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
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