• DOI:10.1063/5.0037860
• Corpus ID: 227014631

Local and nonlocal spin Seebeck effect in lateral Pt–Cr2O3–Pt devices at low temperatures

@article{Muduli2020LocalAN,
  title={Local and nonlocal spin Seebeck effect in lateral Pt–Cr2O3–Pt devices at low temperatures},
  author={Prasanta Kumar Muduli and Richard Schlitz and Tobias Kosub and Ren{\'e} H{\"u}bner and Artur Erbe and Denys Makarov and Sebastian T. B. Goennenwein},
  journal={arXiv: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics},
  year={2020}
}

• P. Muduli, R. Schlitz, +4 authors S. Goennenwein
• Published 17 November 2020
• Physics, Materials Science
• arXiv: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

We have studied thermally driven magnon spin transport (spin Seebeck effect, SSE) in heterostructures of antiferromagnetic $\alpha$-$\mathrm{Cr_2O_3}$ and Pt at low temperatures. Monitoring the amplitude of the local and nonlocal SSE signals as a function of temperature, we found that both decrease with increasing temperature and disappear above 100 K and 20 K, respectively. Additionally, both SSE signals show a tendency to saturate at low temperatures. The nonlocal SSE signal decays exponentially for intermediate injector-detector separation, consistent with magnon spin current transport in the relaxation regime. We estimate the magnon relaxation length of our $\alpha$-$\mathrm{Cr_2O_3}$ films to be around 500 nm at 3 K. This short magnon relaxation length along with the strong temperature dependence of the SSE signal indicates that temperature-dependent inelastic magnon scattering processes play an important role in the intermediate range magnon transport. Our observation is relevant to low-dissipation antiferromagnetic magnon memory and logic devices involving thermal magnon generation and transport.