Recent advances in the spin Nernst effect

Abstract

We welcome the spin Nernst effect to the royal family of Hall/Nernst effects with the recent experimental observations. Spin Nernst effect is the thermal analog of spin Hall effect which produces pure spin current in non-magnet through the interplay between the relativistically originated spin-orbit coupling and the thermodynamic forces. When a thermal gradient is created across a non-magnet, which has high spin-orbit coupling, a pure spin current is generated in a transverse direction by virtue of the spin Nernst effect. This effect can be useful for manipulating the magnetization of neighboring ferromagnet and hence it can provide an opportunity to write memory bits. In this article we briefly review the recent experimental evidences of spin Nernst effect and its possible application.