Theory of magnon-driven spin Seebeck effect

Abstract

The spin Seebeck effect is a spin-motive force generated by a temperature gradient in a ferromagnet that can be detected via normal metal contacts through the inverse spin Hall effect [K. Uchida et al., Nature (London) 455, 778 (2008)]. We explain this effect by spin pumping at the contact that is proportional to the spin-mixing conductance of the interface, the inverse of a temperature-dependent magnetic coherence volume, and the difference between the magnon temperature in the ferromagnet and the electron temperature in the normal metal [D. J. Sanders and D. Walton, Phys. Rev. B 15, 1489 (1977)].