Spin Seebeck Diode Research Articles

Near-room-temperature spin caloritronics in a magnetized and defective zigzag MoS2 nanoribbon

Using a tight-binding approach and first-principles calculations combined with the nonequilibrium Green’s function method, the thermal spin transport in a zigzag molybdenum disulfide ($$\hbox{MoS}_2$$) nanoribbon in the proximity of a ferromagnetic insulator that induces a local exchange magnetic field in the center of the nanoribbon is investigated. It is found that a pure spin current and perfect spin Seebeck effect with zero charge current can be generated by applying a thermal gradient and local exchange magnetic field without a bias voltage near room temperature. Furthermore, it is shown that this nanoscale device can act as a spin Seebeck diode for the control of thermal and spin information in spin caloritronics applications. Finally, the impact of structural defects including edge and Stone–Wales defects on the spin figure of merit is studied. It is then shown that the spin figure of merit can be higher for a magnetized and defective $$\hbox{MoS}_2$$ nanoribbon. The results of this work facilitate deep understanding of the effects of structural defects on the thermoelectric properties of $$\hbox{MoS}_2$$ nanoribbons and indicate their great potential for use in spin caloritronics devices for operation at room temperature.

Tunable Spin Seebeck Diode with Magnonic Spin Tunneling Junction

We theoretically investigate the spin--wave spin current induced by the spin Seebeck effect in magnonic spin tunneling junctions (MSTJs) for arbitrary magnetization directions. We show that the MSTJ functions as a \textit{tunable} spin Seebeck diode in which the tunneling spin current can be turned on and off with high efficiency by controlling the magnetization direction.

Metal-free magnetism, spin-dependent Seebeck effect, and spin-Seebeck diode effect in armchair graphene nanoribbons

Metal-free magnetism and spin caloritronics are at the forefront of condensed-matter physics. Here, the electronic structures and thermal spin-dependent transport properties of armchair graphene nanoribbons (N-AGNRs), where N is the ribbon width (N = 5–23), are systematically studied. The results show that the indirect band gaps exhibit not only oscillatory behavior but also periodic characteristics with E3p > E3p+1 > E3p+2 (E3p, E3p+1 and E3p+2 are the band gaps energy) for a certain integer p, with increasing AGNR width. The magnetic ground states are ferromagnetic (FM) with a Curie temperatures (TC) above room temperature. Furthermore, the spin-up and spin-down currents with opposite directions, generated by a temperature gradient, are almost symmetrical, indicating the appearance of the perfect spin-dependent Seebeck effect (SDSE). Moreover, thermally driven spin currents through the nanodevices induced the spin-Seebeck diode (SSD) effect. Our calculation results indicated that AGNRs can be applied in thermal spin nanodevices.

Thermally induced pure and spin polarized currents in a zigzag silicene nanoribbon based FM/normal/AFM junction

We study thermally induced spin resolved current in a zigzag silicene nanoribbon when the left and right leads are respectively affected by ferromagnetic (FM) and anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) exchange fields (FM/normal/AFM junction). We show that pure spin current is generated due to the leads temperature difference and the junction can work as a spin Seebeck diode. The pure spin current can be easily controlled by a perpendicular electric field and the junction, in this case, can work as a spin current switch. In addition, we study the effect of a single vacancy and show that the vacancy can slightly destroy the pure spin current property which leads to induce a weak spin polarized current. In the presence of both vacancy and electric field, current with high and tunable spin polarization can be achieved.

Multiple thermal spin transport performances of graphene nanoribbon heterojuction co-doped with Nitrogen and Boron

Graphene nanoribbon is a popular material in spintronics owing to its unique electronic properties. Here, we propose a novel spin caloritronics device based on zigzag graphene nanoribbon (ZGNR), which is a heterojunction consisting of a pure single-hydrogen-terminated ZGNR and one doped with nitrogen and boron. Using the density functional theory combined with the non-equilibrium Green’s function, we investigate the thermal spin transport properties of the heterojunction under different magnetic configurations only by a temperature gradient without an external gate or bias voltage. Our results indicate that thermally-induced spin polarized currents can be tuned by switching the magnetic configurations, resulting in a perfect thermal colossal magnetoresistance effect. The heterojunctions with different magnetic configurations exhibit a variety of excellent transport characteristics, including the spin-Seebeck effect, the spin-filtering effect, the temperature switching effect, the negative differential thermal resistance effect and the spin-Seebeck diode feature, which makes the heterojunction a promising candidate for high-efficiently multifunctional spin caloritronic applications.

Design of spin-Seebeck diode with spin semiconductors

We report a new design of spin-Seebeck diode using two-dimensional spin semiconductors such as sawtooth-like (ST) silicence nanoribbons (SiNRs), to generate unidirectional spin currents with a temperature gradient. ST SiNRs have subbands with opposite spins across the Fermi level and hence the flow of thermally excited carriers may produce a net spin current but not charge current. Moreover, we found that even-width ST SiNRs display a remarkable negative differential thermoelectric resistance due to a charge–current compensation mechanism. In contrast, odd-width ST SiNRs manifest features of a thermoelectric diode and can be used to produce both charge and spin currents with temperature gradient. These findings can be extended to other spin semiconductors and open the door for designs of new materials and spin caloritronic devices.

A hybrid superconducting quantum dot acting as an efficient charge and spin Seebeck diode

We propose a highly efficient thermoelectric diode device built from the coupling of a quantum dot with a normal or ferromagnetic electrode and a superconducting reservoir. The current shows a strongly nonlinear behavior in the forward direction (positive thermal gradients) while it almost vanishes in the backward direction (negative thermal gradients). Our discussion is supported by a gauge-invariant current-conserving transport theory accounting for electron–electron interactions inside the dot. We find that the diode behavior is greatly tuned with external gate potentials, Zeeman splittings or lead magnetizations. Our results are thus relevant for the search of novel thermoelectric devices with enhanced functionalities.

A spin-Seebeck diode with a negative differential spin-Seebeck effect in a hydrogen-terminated zigzag silicene nanoribbon heterojunction.

The spin-Seebeck effect (SSE), the central topic of spin caloritronics, provides a new direction for future low power consumption technology. To realize device applications of SSE, a spin-Seebeck diode (SSD) with a negative differential SSE is very desirable. To this end, we constructed a spin caloritronics device that was composed of a ferromagnetic double-single-hydrogen-terminated zigzag silicene nanoribbon (ZSiNR-H2-H) and an antiferromagnetic double-double-hydrogen-terminated zigzag silicene nanoribbon (ZSiNR-H2-H2). By using ab initio calculations combined with nonequilibrium Green's function technique, we found that thermally driven spin current through the heterojunction featured the SSD effect and negative differential SSE. The former originates from the asymmetrical thermal-driven conducting electrons and holes, and the latter ascribes to the thermal spin compensation effect. Their physical mechanisms are much different from the previous ones mainly relying on the spin-wave excitations in the interface between metals and magnetic insulators, supporting our study that puts forward a new route to realize the SSD with a negative differential SSE.

Design for a spin-Seebeck diode based on two-dimensional materials

Studies of the spin-Seebeck effect (SSE) are very important for the development of fundamental science and novel low-power-consumption technologies. The spin-Seebeck diode (SSD), in which the spin current can be driven by a forward temperature gradient but not by a reverse temperature gradient, is a key unit in spin caloritronic devices. Here, we propose a SSD design using two-dimensional (2D) materials such as silicene and phosphorene nanoribbons as the source and drain. Due to their unique band structures and magnetic states, thermally driven spin-up and spin-down currents flow in opposite directions. This mechanism is different from that of the previous one, which uses two permalloy circular disks [Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 047203 (2014)], and the SSD in our design can be easily integrated with gate voltage control. Since the concept of this design is rather general and applicable to many 2D materials, it is promising for the realization and exploitation of SSDs in nanodevices.

Nanoscale Spin Seebeck Rectifier: Controlling Thermal Spin Transport across Insulating Magnetic Junctions with Localized Spin

The spin Seebeck effect is studied across a charge insulating magnetic junction, in which thermal-spin conjugate transport is assisted by the exchange interactions between the localized spin in the center and electrons in metallic leads. We show that, in contrast with bulk spin Seebeck effect, the figure of merit of such nanoscale thermal-spin conversion can be infinite, leading to the ideal Carnot efficiency in the linear response regime. We also find that in the nonlinear spin Seebeck transport regime, the device possesses the asymmetric and negative differential spin Seebeck effects. In the last, the situations with leaking electron tunneling are also discussed. This nanoscale thermal spin rectifier, by tuning the junction parameters, can act as a spin Seebeck diode, spin Seebeck transistor and spin Seebeck switch, which could have substantial implications for flexible thermal and information control in molecular spin caloritronics.

Theory of asymmetric and negative differential magnon tunneling under temperature bias: Towards a spin Seebeck diode and transistor

We study the nonequilibrium transport for the asymmetric and negative differential magnon tunneling driven by temperature bias. We demonstrate that the many-body magnon interaction that makes the magnonic spectrum temperature-dependent is the crucial factor for the emergence of rectification and negative differential spin Seebeck effects in magnon tunneling junctions. When magnonic junctions have temperature-dependent density of states, reversing the temperature bias is able to give asymmetric spin currents and increasing temperature bias could give an anomalously decreasing magnonic spin current. We show that these properties are relevant for building spin Seebeck diodes and transistors, which could play important roles in controlling information and energy in magnonics and spin caloritronics.