Magnetic field control of the spin Seebeck effect

The origin of the suppression of the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect by applied magnetic fields is studied. We perform numerical simulations of the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation of motion for an atomistic spin model and calculate the magnon accumulation in linear temperature gradients for different strengths of applied magnetic fields and different length scales of the temperature gradient. We observe a decrease of the magnon accumulation with increasing magnetic field and we reveal that the origin of this effect is a field dependent change of the frequency distribution of the propagating magnons. With increasing field the magnonic spin currents are reduced due to a suppression of parts of the frequency spectrum. By comparison with measurements of the magnetic field dependent longitudinal spin Seebeck effect in YIG thin films with various thicknesses, we find that our model describes the experimental data very well, demonstrating the importance of this effect for experimental systems

Influence of thickness and interface on the low-temperature enhancement of the spin Seebeck effect in YIG films

The temperature dependent longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE) in heavy metal (HM)/Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) hybrid structures is investigated as a function of YIG film thickness, magnetic field strength, and different HM detection material. The LSSE signal shows a large enhancement with reducing the temperature, leading to a pronounced peak at low temperatures. We find the LSSE peak temperature strongly depends on the film thickness as well as on the magnetic field. Our result can be well explained in the framework of magnon-driven LSSE by taking into account the temperature dependent effective propagation length of thermally excited magnons in bulk. We further demonstrate that the LSSE peak is significantly shifted by changing the interface coupling to an adjacent detection layer, revealing a more complex behavior beyond the currently discussed bulk effect. By direct microscopic imaging of the interface, we correlate the observed temperature dependence with the interface structure between the YIG and the adjacent metal layer. Our results highlight the role of interface effects on the temperature dependent LSSE in HM/YIG system, suggesting that the temperature dependent spin current transparency strikingly relies on the interface conditions

Janus Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

A novel crystal configuration of sandwiched S-Mo-Se structure (Janus SMoSe) at the monolayer limit has been synthesized and carefully characterized in this work. By controlled sulfurization of monolayer MoSe2 the top layer of selenium atoms are substituted by sulfur atoms while the bottom selenium layer remains intact. The peculiar structure of this new material is systematically investigated by Raman, photoluminescence and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and confirmed by transmission-electron microscopy and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. Density-functional theory calculations are performed to better understand the Raman vibration modes and electronic structures of the Janus SMoSe monolayer, which are found to correlate well with corresponding experimental results. Finally, high basal plane hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity is discovered for the Janus monolayer and DFT calculation implies that the activity originates from the synergistic effect of the intrinsic defects and structural strain inherent in the Janus structure.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure

Dimensionality-confined superconductivity within SrNbO3-SrTiO3 heterostructures

Interfaces between transition-metal oxides are able to host two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) and exhibit exotic quantum phenomena. Here we report the observation of superconductivity below 230 mK for the heterostructure composed of SrNbO3 (SNO) and SrTiO3 (STO). Different from some other counterparts with two insulators, the metallic SNO provides a novel mechanism to form a quasi 2DEG by charge transfer from bulk towards interface under strain. The superconductivity, residing within the strained SNO layer near the interface, is contributed by an electron system with record-low carrier density. Notably, although embedded in a normal metallic layer with a carrier density 4 to 5 orders higher, the electron system is still uniquely well-protected to retain high mobility and lies deep in extreme quantum regime