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Thermally generated spin current in the topological insulator Bi2Se3

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

R. Jain
M. Stanley
A. Bose
A.R. Richardella
X.S. Zhang
T. Pillsbury
D.A. Muller
N. Samarth
D.C. Ralph

Abstract

We present measurements of thermally generated transverse spin currents in the topological insulator Bi2Se3, thereby completing measurements of interconversions among the full triad of thermal gradients, charge currents, and spin currents. We accomplish this by comparing the spin Nernst magneto-thermopower to the spin Hall magnetoresistance for bilayers of Bi2Se3/CoFeB. We find that Bi2Se3 does generate substantial thermally driven spin currents. A lower bound for the ratio of spin current density to thermal gradient isrJxsT = (4.9 ± 0.9) × 106 (2ħe )KAμmm21, and a lower bound for the magnitude of the spin Nernst ratio is −0.61 ± 0.11. The spin Nernst ratio for Bi2Se3 is the largest among all materials measured to date, two to three times larger compared to previous measurements for the heavy metals Pt and W. Strong thermally generated spin currents in Bi2Se3 can be understood via Mott relations to be due to an overall large spin Hall conductivity and its dependence on electron energy. © 2023 The Authors.

Date Published

Journal

Science Advances

Volume

9

Issue

50

ISBN Number

23752548 (ISSN)

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85179649924&doi=10.1126%2fsciadv.adi4540&partnerID=40&md5=104457944fa98d649f8b6875537b8c8a

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adi4540

Alternate Journal

Sci. Adv.

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