Engineering topics

Tserkovnyak, Y.

Publications and source records attributed to Tserkovnyak, Y..

3 records

DOE OSTI2021

Observation of nuclear-spin Seebeck effect

Thermoelectric effects have been applied to power generators and temperature sensors that convert waste heat into electricity. The effects, however, have been limited to electrons to occur, and inevitably disappear at low temperatures due to electronic entropy quenching. Here, we report thermoelectric generation caused by nuclear spins in a solid: nuclear-spin Seebeck effect. The sample is a magnetically ordered material MnCO 3 having a large nuclear spin ( I = 5/2) of 55 Mn nuclei and strong hyperfine coupling, with a Pt contact. In the system, we observe low-temperature thermoelectric signals down to 100 mK due to nuclear-spin excitation. Our theoretical calculation in which interfacial Korringa process is taken into consideration quantitatively reproduces the results. The nuclear thermoelectric effect demonstrated here offers a way for exploring thermoelectric science and technologies at ultralow temperatures.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2021

Short-range thermal magnon diffusion in magnetic garnet

Here, using the spin Seebeck effect (SSE), we study the propagation distance of thermally induced spin currents inside a magnetic insulator thin film in the short-range regime. We disambiguate spin currents driven by temperature and chemical potential gradients by comparing the SSE signal before and after adding a heat-sinking capping layer on the same device. We report that the measured spin decay behavior near the heat source is well accounted for by a diffusion model where the magnon diffusion length is in submicron range, in other words, two orders of magnitude smaller than previous estimates inferred from the long-range behavior. Our results highlight the caveat in applying a diffusive theory to describe thermally generated magnon transport, where a single decay length may not capture the behavior on all length scales.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2021

Self-stabilizing exchange-mediated spin transport

We report that long-range spin transport in magnetic systems can be achieved by means of exchange-mediated spin textures with robust topological winding, a phenomenon referred to as spin superfluidity. Its experimental signatures have been discussed in antiferromagnets, which are nearly free of dipolar interaction. However, in ferromagnets, which possess non-negligible dipole fields, realization of such spin transport has remained a challenge. Using micromagnetic simulations, we investigate coherent exchange-mediated spin transport in extended thin ferromagnetic films. We uncover a two-fluid state in which the long-range spin transport by spin textures coexists with spin waves, as well as a soliton-screened spin transport regime at high spin injection biases. Both states are associated with distinct spin texture reconstructions near the spin injection region and sustain spin transport over large distances.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗