Large magneto-Seebeck effect in magnetic tunnel junctions with half-metallic Heusler electrodes

Alexander Boehnke, Ulrike Martens, Christian Sterwerf, Alessia Niesen, Torsten Huebner, Marvin Ehe, Markus Meinert, Timo Kuschel (), Andy Thomas, Christian Heiliger, Markus Münzenberg and Günter Reiss ()
Additional contact information
Alexander Boehnke: Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25
Ulrike Martens: Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität
Christian Sterwerf: Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25
Alessia Niesen: Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25
Torsten Huebner: Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25
Marvin Ehe: Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität
Markus Meinert: Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25
Timo Kuschel: Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25
Andy Thomas: Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (IFW Dresden), Institute for Metallic Materials
Christian Heiliger: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
Markus Münzenberg: Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität
Günter Reiss: Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Spin caloritronics studies the interplay between charge-, heat- and spin-currents, which are initiated by temperature gradients in magnetic nanostructures. A plethora of new phenomena has been discovered that promises, e.g., to make wasted heat in electronic devices useable or to provide new read-out mechanisms for information. However, only few materials have been studied so far with Seebeck voltages of only some microvolt, which hampers applications. Here, we demonstrate that half-metallic Heusler compounds are hot candidates for enhancing spin-dependent thermoelectric effects. This becomes evident when considering the asymmetry of the spin-split density of electronic states around the Fermi level that determines the spin-dependent thermoelectric transport in magnetic tunnel junctions. We identify Co2FeAl and Co2FeSi Heusler compounds as ideal due to their energy gaps in the minority density of states, and demonstrate devices with substantially larger Seebeck voltages and tunnel magneto-Seebeck effect ratios than the commonly used Co-Fe-B-based junctions.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01784-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01784-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01784-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().