Longitudinal spin-Seebeck effect in sintered polycrystalline (Mn,Zn)Fe2O4

Abstract

This paper reports that the longitudinal spin-Seebeck effect appears even in a sintered polycrystalline Mn-Zn ferrite $\left[\left(\text{Mn},\text{Zn}\right){\text{Fe}}_2{\text{O}}_4\right]$ slab. The effect drives a spin current flowing across an interface between the $\left(\text{Mn},\text{Zn}\right){\text{Fe}}_2{\text{O}}_4$ slab and an attached Pt film along a temperature gradient and it generates electric voltage via the inverse spin-Hall effect in the Pt film. Since the observed phenomenon enables thermal generation of electric voltage from commonly used polycrystalline insulators, it can be used as a versatile and low-cost thermoelectric generator.