Spin Seebeck effect in bipolar magnetic semiconductor: A case of magnetic MoS2 nanotube

Abstract

Bipolar magnetic semiconductors (BMSs) are a new member of spintornic materials. In BMSs, one can obtain 100% spin-polarized currents by means of the gate voltage. However, most of previous studies focused on their applications in spintronics instead of spin caloritronics. Herein, we show that BMS is an intrinsic model for spin Seebeck effect (SSE). Without any gate voltage and electric field, currents with opposite spin orientation are generated and flow in opposite directions with almost equal magnitude when simply applying a temperature bias. This is also due to the special electronic structure of BMS where the conduction and valence bands near the Fermi level belong to opposite spin orientation. Based on density function theory and non-equilibrium Green’s function methods, we confirm the thermal-induced SSE in BMS using a case of magnetic MoS2 nanotube. The magnitude of spin current in zigzag tube is almost four times higher than that in armchair tube. BMS is promising candidates for spin caloritronic applications.