Enhanced spin Seebeck effect signal due to spin-momentum locked topological surface states.

ABSTRACT: Spin-momentum locking in protected surface states enables efficient electrical detection of magnon decay at a magnetic-insulator/topological-insulator heterojunction. Here we demonstrate this property using the spin Seebeck effect (SSE), that is, measuring the transverse thermoelectric response to a temperature gradient across a thin film of yttrium iron garnet, an insulating ferrimagnet, and forming a heterojunction with (BixSb1-x)2Te3, a topological insulator. The non-equilibrium magnon population established at the interface can decay in part by interactions of magnons with electrons near the Fermi energy of the topological insulator. When this decay channel is made active by tuning (BixSb1-x)2Te3 into a bulk insulator, a large electromotive force emerges in the direction perpendicular

SUBMITTER: Jiang Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4857385 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature