Issue |
EPL
Volume 110, Number 3, May 2015
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 38004 | |
Number of page(s) | 5 | |
Section | Interdisciplinary Physics and Related Areas of Science and Technology | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/110/38004 | |
Published online | 19 May 2015 |
Spin-dependent Seebeck effect in asymmetric four-terminal systems with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
1 Center for Phononics and Thermal Energy Science, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University Shanghai 200092, PRC
2 Hokkaido University - Sapporo 060-0826, Japan
3 Department of Physics, Center for Computational Science and Engineering, Center for 2D Advanced Materials and Graphene Research Center, National University of Singapore - Singapore 117546, Republic of Singapore
4 NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore Singapore 117456, Republic of Singapore
(a) zhoujunzhou@tongji.edu.cn (corresponding author)
(b) phononics@tongji.edu.cn (corresponding author)
Received: 6 February 2015
Accepted: 22 April 2015
We propose a new type of spin-dependent Seebeck effect (SDSE) emerging from the Rashba spin-orbit coupling in asymmetric four-terminal electron systems. This system generates spin currents or spin voltages along the longitudinal direction parallel to the temperature gradient in the absence of magnetic fields. The remarkable result arises from the breaking of the reflection symmetry along the transverse direction. In the meantime, the SDSE along the transverse direction, the so-called the spin Nernst effect, with spin currents or spin voltages perpendicular to the temperature gradient, can be simultaneously realized in our system. We further find that it is possible to use the temperature differences between four leads to tune the spin-dependent Seebeck coefficients.
PACS: 85.75.-d – Magnetoelectronics; spintronics: devices exploiting spin polarized transport or integrated magnetic fields / 72.15.Jf – Thermoelectric and thermomagnetic effects / 85.80.-b – Thermoelectromagnetic and other devices
© EPLA, 2015
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