Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Giant spin Seebeck effect in a non-magnetic material

Nature volume 487, pages 210–213 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

The spin Seebeck effect is observed when a thermal gradient applied to a spin-polarized material leads to a spatially varying transverse spin current in an adjacent non-spin-polarized material, where it gets converted into a measurable voltage. It has been previously observed with a magnitude of microvolts per kelvin in magnetically ordered materials, ferromagnetic metals1, semiconductors2 and insulators3. Here we describe a signal in a non-magnetic semiconductor (InSb) that has the hallmarks of being produced by the spin Seebeck effect, but is three orders of magnitude larger (millivolts per kelvin). We refer to the phenomenon that produces it as the giant spin Seebeck effect. Quantizing magnetic fields spin-polarize conduction electrons in semiconductors by means of Zeeman splitting, which spin–orbit coupling amplifies by a factor of ∼25 in InSb. We propose that the giant spin Seebeck effect is mediated by phonon–electron drag, which changes the electrons’ momentum and directly modifies the spin-splitting energy through spin–orbit interactions. Owing to the simultaneously strong phonon–electron drag and spin–orbit coupling in InSb, the magnitude of the giant spin Seebeck voltage is comparable to the largest known classical thermopower values.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Detection scheme for measurement of the SSE in non-magnetic InSb.
Figure 2: Experimental data on the SSE in InSb.
Figure 3: Classical thermomagnetic properties of InSb.
Figure 4: How phonon–electron drag causes the SSE in InSb through the spin-orbit interaction.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Uchida, K. et al. Observation of the spin Seebeck effect. Nature 455, 778–781 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Jaworski, C. M. et al. Observation of the spin-Seebeck effect in a ferromagnetic semiconductor. Nature Mater. 9, 898–903 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Uchida, K. et al. Spin Seebeck insulator. Nature Mater. 9, 894–897 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Jaworski, C. M. et al. Spin-Seebeck effect: a phonon driven spin distribution. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 186601 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Adachi, H. et al. Gigantic enhancement of spin Seebeck effect by phonon drag. Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 252506 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Adachi, H. et al. Linear-response theory of spin Seebeck effect in ferromagnetic insulators. Phys. Rev. B 83, 094410 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Tserkovnyak, Y. et al. Spin pumping and magnetization dynamics in metallic multilayers. Phys. Rev. B 66, 224403 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Xiao, J. et al. Theory of magnon-driven spin Seebeck effect. Phys. Rev. B 81, 214418 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Valenzuela, S. O. & Tinkham, M. Direct electronic measurement of the spin Hall effect. Nature 442, 176–179 (2006)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Yu, H. et al. Evidence for thermal spin-transfer torque. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 146601 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Le Breton, J.-C. et al. Thermal spin current from a ferromagnet to silicon by Seebeck spin tunnelling. Nature 475, 82–85 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Uchida, K. et al. Observation of the longitudinal spin-Seebeck effect in magnetic insulators. Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 172505 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Weiler, M. et al. Local charge and spin currents in magnetothermal landscapes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 106602 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Saitoh, E. et al. Conversion of spin current into charge current at room temperature: inverse spin-Hall effect. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 182509 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Madelung, O. Landolt-Börnstein. Numerical Data and Functional Relationships in Science and Technology New Series Group III, Vol. 17, Subvol. A, section 2.15 (Springer, 1982)

  16. Shoenberg, D. Magnetic Oscillations in Metals (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  17. Puri, S. M. & Geballe, T. H. Phonon drag in n-type InSb. Phys. Rev. 136, A1767–A1774 (1964)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Dresselhaus, G. Spin-orbit coupling effects in zinc blende structures. Phys. Rev. 100, 580–586 (1955)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Bosu, S. et al. Spin Seebeck effect in thin films of the Heusler compound Co2MnSi. Phys. Rev. B 83, 224401 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Y. Kato, H. Adachi, S. Maekawa and D. Stroud for discussions, and K. Wickey for assistance. This work was supported by the NSF CBET-1133589 (data acquisition and interpretation) and by DMR-0820414 (sample preparation). C.M.J. has a fellowship from the DOE GATE Center of Excellence FG26 05NT42616.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, USA

    C. M. Jaworski & J. P. Heremans

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, USA

    R. C. Myers

  3. Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, USA

    R. C. Myers, E. Johnston-Halperin & J. P. Heremans

Authors
  1. C. M. Jaworski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. R. C. Myers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. E. Johnston-Halperin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. J. P. Heremans
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

C.M.J., R.C.M. and J.P.H. conceived the study; C.M.J. designed the experiments, prepared the samples with help from E.J.-H., and collected and carried out analysis of the data. R.C.M. and J.P.H. developed the explanation. All authors discussed the results and participated in writing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. P. Heremans.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Text and Data, Supplementary Figures 1-7 and Supplementary References. (PDF 1503 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jaworski, C., Myers, R., Johnston-Halperin, E. et al. Giant spin Seebeck effect in a non-magnetic material. Nature 487, 210–213 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11221

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11221

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing