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Unidirectional spin-wave heat conveyer

Nature Materials volume 12, pages 549–553 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

When energy is introduced into a region of matter, it heats up and the local temperature increases. This energy spontaneously diffuses away from the heated region. In general, heat should flow from warmer to cooler regions and it is not possible to externally change the direction of heat conduction. Here we show a magnetically controllable heat flow caused by a spin-wave current. The direction of the flow can be switched by applying a magnetic field. When microwave energy is applied to a region of ferrimagnetic Y3Fe5O12, an end of the magnet far from this region is found to be heated in a controlled manner and a negative temperature gradient towards it is formed. This is due to unidirectional energy transfer by the excitation of spin-wave modes without time-reversal symmetry and to the conversion of spin waves into heat. When a Y3Fe5O12 film with low damping coefficients is used, spin waves are observed to emit heat at the sample end up to 10 mm away from the excitation source. The magnetically controlled remote heating we observe is directly applicable to the fabrication of a heat-flow controller.

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Figure 1: Concept of spin-wave heat conveyer.
Figure 2: Spin-wave spectroscopy for a Y3Fe5O12 disk.
Figure 3: Observation of spin-wave-induced remote heat generation.
Figure 4: Observation of heat generation in a thin Y3Fe5O12 film.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank A. A. Serga, G. E. W. Bauer and S. Takahashi for valuable discussions. The work at Tohoku University was supported by CREST-JST ‘Creation of Nano-systems with Novel Functions through Process Integration’, Japan, PRESTO-JST ‘Phase Interfaces for Highly Efficient Energy Utilization’, Japan, a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research A (24244051), a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (22109003), from MEXT, Japan. The work at Technische Universität Kaiserslautern was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within Priority Program 1538 ‘Spin Caloric Transport’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan

    T. An, K. Uchida, K. Yamaguchi, Y. Kajiwara & E. Saitoh

  2. CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo 102-0075, Sanbancho, Japan

    T. An, K. Yamaguchi, K. Harii, J. Ohe, Y. Kajiwara, H. Adachi, S. Maekawa & E. Saitoh

  3. Fachbereich Physik and Landesforschungszentrum OPTIMAS, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern 67663, Germany

    V. I. Vasyuchka, A. V. Chumak, M. B. Jungfleisch & B. Hillebrands

  4. PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama 332-0012, Kawaguchi, Japan

    K. Uchida

  5. Advanced Science Research Centre, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai 319-1195, Japan

    K. Harii, H. Adachi, S. Maekawa & E. Saitoh

  6. Department of Physics, Toho University, Funabashi 274-8510, Japan

    J. Ohe

  7. WPI-AIMR (WPI-Advanced Institute for Materials Research), Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan

    E. Saitoh

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  1. T. An
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Contributions

T.A., K.U. and K.Y. designed the experiments and collected the data for the polycrystalline Y3Fe5O12 sample in Figs 1–3, and V.I.V., A.V.C. and M.B.J. designed the experiments and collected the data for the single-crystalline Y3Fe5O12 sample in Fig. 4. E.S. and B.H. planned and supervised the study. K.H. and Y.K. supported the experiments. T.A., V.I.V., K.H. and J.O. performed the analysis of the data. S.M., H.A. and B.H. developed the theory. T.A., V.I.V., E.S. and B.H. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to T. An.

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An, T., Vasyuchka, V., Uchida, K. et al. Unidirectional spin-wave heat conveyer. Nature Mater 12, 549–553 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3628

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