The inverse thermal spin–orbit torque and the relation of the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction to ground-state energy currents

Abstract

Using the Kubo linear-response formalism we derive expressions to calculate the electronic contribution to the heat current generated by magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic metals with broken inversion symmetry and spin–orbit interaction (SOI). The effect of producing heat currents by magnetization dynamics constitutes the Onsager reciprocal of the thermal spin–orbit torque (TSOT), i.e. the generation of torques on the magnetization due to temperature gradients. We find that the energy current driven by magnetization dynamics contains a contribution from the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI), which needs to be subtracted from the Kubo linear response of the energy current in order to extract the heat current. We show that the expressions of the DMI coefficient can be derived elegantly from the DMI energy current. Guided by formal analogies between the Berry phase theory of DMI on the one hand and the modern theory of orbital magnetization on the other hand we are led to an interpretation of the latter in terms of energy currents as well. Based on ab initio calculations we investigate the electronic contribution to the heat current driven by magnetization dynamics in Mn/W(0 0 1) magnetic bilayers. We predict that fast domain walls drive strong heat currents.