Magnons versus electrons in thermal spin transport through metallic interfaces

Abstract

We develop a theory for spin transport in magnetic metals that treats the contribution of magnons and electrons on equal footing. As an application we consider thermally-driven spin injection across an interface between a magnetic metal and a normal metal, i.e., the spin-dependent Seebeck effect. We show that the ratio between magnonic and electronic contribution scales as $\sqrt{T/T_C}{T}_F/T_C$, with the Fermi temperature $T_F$ and the Curie temperature $T_C$. Since, typically, $T_C\ll T_F$, the magnonic contribution may dominate the thermal spin injection, even though the interface is more transparent for electronic spin current.

arXiv commentContribution to the Special issue on Spincaloritronics in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics

References in corpus (15)

• Spin Caloritronics
• Spin Seebeck insulator
• Theory of magnon-driven spin Seebeck effect
• Thermally driven spin injection from a ferromagnet into a non-magnetic metal
• Experimental test of the spin mixing interface conductivity concept
• Magnon spin transport driven by the magnon chemical potential in a magnetic insulator
• Spin transfer torque on magnetic insulators
• Phonon driven spin distribution due to the spin-Seebeck effect
• Magnon-drag thermopower and Nernst coefficient in Fe, Co, and Ni
• Landau-Lifshitz theory of the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect
• Two-Fluid Theory for Spin Superfluidity in Magnetic Insulators
• Electron-Magnon Scattering in Magnetic Heterostructures Far Out-of-Equilibrium
• Spin-transfer mechanism for magnon-drag thermopower
• Thermal spin transport and spin-orbit interaction in ferromagnetic/non-magnetic metals
• Landau-Lifshitz theory of the magnon-drag thermopower

Cited by in corpus (4)

• $s$-$d$ model for local and nonlocal spin dynamics in laser-excited magnetic heterostructures
• Modeling ultrafast demagnetization and spin transport: the interplay of spin-polarized electrons and thermal magnons
• Generalized magnetoelectronic circuit theory and spin relaxation at interfaces in magnetic multilayers
• Interplay of electron-magnon scattering and spin-orbit induced electronic spin-flip scattering in a two-band Stoner model