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:

Observation of the spin-Seebeck effect in a ferromagnetic semiconductor

Nature Materials volume 9, pages 898–903 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

This article has been updated

Abstract

Reducing the heat generated in traditional electronics is a chief motivation for the development of spin-based electronics, called spintronics1. Spin-based transistors that do not strictly rely on the raising or lowering of electrostatic barriers can overcome scaling limits in charge-based transistors2. Spin transport in semiconductors might also lead to dissipation-less information transfer with pure spin currents3. Despite these thermodynamic advantages, little experimental literature exists on the thermal aspects of spin transport in solids. A recent and surprising exception was the discovery of the spin-Seebeck effect, reported as a measurement of a redistribution of spins along the length of a sample of permalloy (NiFe) induced by a temperature gradient4. This macroscopic spatial distribution of spins is, surprisingly, many orders of magnitude larger than the spin diffusion length, which has generated strong interest in the thermal aspects of spin transport5. Here, the spin-Seebeck effect is observed in a ferromagnetic semiconductor, GaMnAs, which allows flexible design of the magnetization directions, a larger spin polarization, and measurements across the magnetic phase transition. This effect is observed even in the absence of longitudinal charge transport. The spatial distribution of spin currents is maintained across electrical breaks, highlighting the local nature of this thermally driven effect.

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: Measurement of the spin-Seebeck effect in GaMnAs using strip contacts.
Figure 2: Temperature and spatial dependence of the spin-Seebeck effect.
Figure 3: Experimental test for a longitudinal spin current due to the spin-Seebeck effect.
Figure 4: Measurements with out-of-plane magnetization.
Figure 5: Measurement of spin-Seebeck effect using point contacts.

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

  • 06 October 2010

    In the version of this Letter originally published online, the 'Received' date was incorrect; this has now been corrected in all versions of the Letter.

References

  1. Awschalom, D. D. & Flatté, M. E. Challenges for semiconductor spintronics. Nature Phys. 3, 153–159 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hall, K. C. & Flatté, M. E. Performance of a spin-based insulated gate field effect transistor. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 162503 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Murakami, S., Nagaosa, N. & Zhang, S. Dissipationless quantum spin current at room temperature. Science 301, 1348–1351 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Bauer, G. E., MacDonald, A. H. & Maekawa, S. Spin caloritronics. Solid State Commun. 150, 459–460 (2010).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Saitoh, E., Ueda, M., Miyajima, H. & Tatara, G. Conversion of spin current into charge current at room temperature: Inverse spin-Hall effect. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 182509 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Myers, R. C. et al. Antisite effect on hole-mediated ferromagnetism in (Ga,Mn)As. Phys. Rev. B 74, 155203 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Mack, S., Myers, R. C., Heron, J. T., Gossard, A. C. & Awschalom, D. D. Stoichiometric growth of high Curie temperature heavily alloyed GaMnAs. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 192502 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Liu, X., Sasaki, Y. & Furdyna, J. K. Ferromagnetic resonance in Ga1−xMnxAs: Effects of magnetic anisotropy. Phys. Rev. B 67, 205204 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Chiba, D., Nishitani, Y., Matsukura, F. & Ohno, H. Properties of Ga1−xMnxAs with high Mn composition (x>0.1). Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 122503 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Pu, Y., Johnston-Halperin, E., Awschalom, D. & Shi, J. Anisotropic thermopower and planar Nernst effect in Ga1−xMnxAs ferromagnetic semiconductors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 36601 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Sanders, D. J. & Walton, D. Effect of magnon–phonon thermal relaxation on heat transport by magnons. Phys. Rev. B 15, 1489–1494 (1977).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Xiao, J., Bauer, G. E. W., Uchida, K-c., Saitoh, E. & Maekawa, S. Theory of magnon-driven spin Seebeck effect. Phys. Rev. B 81, 214418 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Uchida, K. et al. Spin-Seebeck effects in films. Solid State Commun. 150, 524–528 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Braden, J. G., Parker, J. S., Xiong, P., Chun, S. H. & Samarth, N. Direct measurement of the spin polarization of the magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 056602 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Soulen, J. et al. Measuring the spin polarization of a metal with a superconducting point contact. Science 282, 85–88 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Feng, Y. P., Schiffer, P., Mihalisin, J. & Osheroff, D. D. Magnon thermal conductivity of solid 3He in the U2D2 antiferromagnetic phase. Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 1450–1453 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in parts by the NSF, NSF-CBET 0754023, the ONR, J.P.H.’s Ohio Eminent Scholar Discretionary Fund, and The Ohio State University Institute for Materials Research (R.C.M.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

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

    C. M. Jaworski & J. P. Heremans

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

    J. Yang & R. C. Myers

  3. Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA

    S. Mack & D. D. Awschalom

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

    J. P. Heremans & R. C. Myers

Authors
  1. C. M. Jaworski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J. Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. S. Mack
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. D. D. Awschalom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. J. P. Heremans
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. R. C. Myers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

C.M.J., J.P.H., and R.C.M. worked on thermomagnetic data collection, experimental design, and analysis. J.Y. and R.C.M. did device fabrication and magnetic characterization. R.C.M., S.M., and D.D.A. designed and grew the GaMnAs films. All authors discussed the progress of research and participated in writing the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to J. P. Heremans or R. C. Myers.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (PDF 495 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jaworski, C., Yang, J., Mack, S. et al. Observation of the spin-Seebeck effect in a ferromagnetic semiconductor. Nature Mater 9, 898–903 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2860

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2860

This article is cited by

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