Thermal spin current from a ferromagnet to silicon by Seebeck spin tunnelling.

Heat generation by electric current, which is ubiquitous in electronic devices and circuits, raises energy consumption and will become increasingly problematic in future generations of high-density electronics. The control and re-use of heat are therefore important topics for existing and emerging technologies, including spintronics. Recently it was reported that heat flow within a ferromagnet can produce a flow of spin angular momentum-a spin current-and an associated voltage. This spin Seebeck effect has been observed in metallic, insulating and semiconductor ferromagnets with temperature gradients across them. Here we describe and report the demonstration of Seebeck spin tunnelling-a distinctly different thermal spin flow, of purely interfacial nature-generated in a tunnel contact between electrodes of different temperatures when at least one of the electrodes is a ferromagnet. The Seebeck spin current is governed by the energy derivative of the tunnel spin polarization. By exploiting this in ferromagnet-oxide-silicon tunnel junctions, we observe thermal transfer of spins from the ferromagnet to the silicon without a net tunnel charge current. The induced spin accumulation scales linearly with heating power and changes sign when the temperature differential is reversed. This thermal spin current can be used by itself, or in combination with electrical spin injection, to increase device efficiency. The results highlight the engineering of heat transport in spintronic devices and facilitate the functional use of heat. ©2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved