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Voltage tuning of thermal spin current in ferromagnetic tunnel contacts to semiconductors

Nature Materials volume 13, pages 360–366 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Spin currents are paramount to manipulate the magnetization of ferromagnetic elements in spin-based memory, logic and microwave devices, and to induce spin polarization in non-magnetic materials. A unique approach to create spin currents employs thermal gradients and heat flow. Here we demonstrate that a thermal spin current can be tuned conveniently by a voltage. In magnetic tunnel contacts to semiconductors (silicon and germanium), it is shown that a modest voltage (~200 mV) changes the thermal spin current induced by Seebeck spin tunnelling by a factor of five, because it modifies the relevant tunnelling states and thereby the spin-dependent thermoelectric parameters. The magnitude and direction of the spin current is also modulated by combining electrical and thermal spin currents with equal or opposite sign. The results demonstrate that spin-dependent thermoelectric properties away from the Fermi energy are accessible, and open the way towards tailoring thermal spin currents and torques by voltage, rather than material design.

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Figure 1: Principle of the approach and device layout.
Figure 2: Simultaneous thermal and electrical spin current in a Co70Fe30/MgO/Si tunnel contact.
Figure 3: Magnitude of thermal spin current for biased tunnel contacts.
Figure 4: Voltage tuning of thermal spin current in a Co70Fe30/MgO/Si tunnel contact.
Figure 5: Calculated thermal spin current versus tunnel voltage.
Figure 6: Voltage tuning of thermal spin current in a Co70Fe30/MgO tunnel contact on Ge.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the KIST institutional program (2E22732 and 2V02720) and by the Pioneer Research Center Program (2011-0027905). K-R.J. and A.S. acknowledge a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Foreign Researchers, and H.S. acknowledges support from the Funding Program for Next Generation World-Leading Researchers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Spintronics Research Center, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan,

    Kun-Rok Jeon, Aurelie Spiesser, Hidekazu Saito, Shinji Yuasa & Ron Jansen

  2. Center for Spintronics Research, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 136-791, Korea

    Byoung-Chul Min

  3. Department of Physics and Center for Nanospinics of Spintronic Materials, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, Korea

    Sung-Chul Shin

  4. Department of Emerging Materials Science, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Daegu 711-873, Korea

    Sung-Chul Shin

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  1. Kun-Rok Jeon
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  4. Hidekazu Saito
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Contributions

K-R.J. designed the experiments together with H.S. and R.J.; The devices were designed and fabricated by K-R.J, with the help and fabrication facilities provided by B-C.M. and S-C.S.; the measurements were carried out by K-R.J. with the help of A.S., H.S. and R.J.; the model calculation was done by R.J. and the data analysis was done by K-R.J., together with R.J.; all authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript, which was written by K-R.J. and R.J.

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Correspondence to Ron Jansen.

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Jeon, KR., Min, BC., Spiesser, A. et al. Voltage tuning of thermal spin current in ferromagnetic tunnel contacts to semiconductors. Nature Mater 13, 360–366 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3869

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