Effect of the magnon dispersion on the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect in yttrium iron garnets

We study the temperature dependence of the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE) in an yttrium iron garnet Y3Fe5O12 (YIG)/Pt system for samples of different thicknesses. In this system, the thermal spin torque is magnon driven. The LSSE signal peaks at a specific temperature that depends on the YIG sample thickness. We also observe freeze-out of the LSSE signal at high magnetic fields, which we attribute to the opening of an energy gap in the magnon dispersion. We observe partial freeze-out of the LSSE signal even at room temperature, where k(B)T is much larger than the gap. This suggests that a subset of the magnon population with an energy below k(B)T(C) (T-C similar to 40 K) contributes disproportionately to the LSSE; at temperatures above T-C, we label these magnons subthermal magnons. The T dependence of the LSSE at temperatures below the maximum is interpreted in terms of an empirical model that ascribes most of the temperature dependence to that of the thermally driven magnon flux, which is related to the details of the magnon dispersion.115438sciescopu

Phonon-induced diamagnetic force and its effect on the lattice thermal conductivity

Phonons are displacements of atoms around their rest positions in a crystalline solid. They carry sound and heat, but are not classically associated with magnetism. Here, we show that phonons are, in fact, sensitive to magnetic fields, even in diamagnetic materials. We do so by demonstrating experimentally that acoustic phonons in a diamagnetic semiconductor (InSb) scatter more strongly from one another when a magnetic field is applied. We attribute this observation to the magnetic-field sensitivity of the anharmonicity of the interatomic bonds that govern the probability of phonon-phonon interactions. The displacements of atoms locally affect the orbital motion of valence band electrons, which, in the presence of an external magnetic field, spatially modulates the orbital diamagnetism around the displaced atoms. The spatial gradient in magnetic moment results in an anharmonic magnetic force exerted on the displaced atom. The process is modelled by ab initio calculations that, without the use of a single adjustable parameter, reproduce the observed 12% decrease in the lattice thermal conductivity under a 7 T magnetic field at a temperature of 5.2 K.111915sciescopu

Magnon-drag thermopower and Nernst coefficient in Fe, Co, and Ni

Magnon drag is shown to dominate the thermopower of elemental Fe from 2 to 80 K and of elemental Co from 150 to 600 K; it is also shown to contribute to the thermopower of elemental Ni from 50 to 500 K. Two theoretical models are presented for magnon-drag thermopower. One is a hydrodynamic theory based purely on nonrelativistic, Galilean, spin-preserving electron-magnon scattering. The second is based on spin-motive forces, where the thermopower results from the electric current pumped by the dynamic magnetization associated with a magnon heat flux. In spite of their very different microscopic origins, the two give similar predictions for pure metals at low temperature, allowing us to semiquantitatively explain the observed thermopower of elemental Fe and Co without adjustable parameters. We also find that magnon drag may contribute to the thermopower of Ni. A spin-mixing model is presented that describes the magnon-drag contribution to the anomalous Nernst effect in Fe, again enabling a semiquantitative match to the experimental data without fitting parameters. Our paper suggests that particle nonconserving processes may play an important role in other types of drag phenomena and also gives a predicative theory for improving metals as thermoelectric materials.11229sciescopu