Reply to “Comment on ‘Optical detection of transverse spin-Seebeck effect in permalloy film using Sagnac interferometer microscopy’ ”

Abstract

In their Comment, Kimling and Kuschel (hereafter the commenters) challenge our original interpretation of the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) measurements using ultrasensitive Sagnac interferometer, claiming that the transverse spin-Seebeck effect (TSSE) is not the only contribution to the measured change in the Kerr rotation angle from a Ni80Fe20 (NiFe) ferromagnetic (FM) slab subjected to a lateral temperature gradient in the presence of a magnetic field. The authors assert that: (1) the TSSE, in general, has not been completely proven so far, and that the existing theories, in particular the phonon magnon drag model that we have used in our publication, in fact cannot explain the original work of Uchida et al. (2) The commenters based their critique on an estimate of the magnitude of the measured effect, arguing that to observe the TSSE that we originally claimed, the temperature gradient in our measurements should have been much larger than the value we measured. In this Reply, firstly, we summarize previous literature reports on the TSSE response in FM metallic systems. Secondly, we dispute the estimate of the necessary large temperature gradient made by the commenters. Importantly, the Kerr effect sensitivity to spin accumulation (via the TSSE response) has not been recognized by the commenters, in fact it was mistakenly assumed that the Kerr effect sensitivity to the spin accumulation by the TSSE is the same as the Kerr sensitivity to the bulk magnetization change due to the temperature change. In conclusion, we show that the TSSE is the only viable interpretation of our original measurements, and that the phonon-magnon drag model is indeed capable of explaining our results.