Thermal imaging of spin Peltier effect

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 13754
• Main Authors: Daimon, Shunsuke, Iguchi, Ryo, Hioki, Tomosato, Saitoh, Eiji, Uchida, Ken-ichi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 12.12.2016; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/766/119/1001; 639/925/357/997; Equilibrium; Heat detection; Humanities and Social Sciences; Materials research; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Japan
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13754

The Peltier effect modulates the temperature of a junction comprising two different conductors in response to charge currents across the junction, which is used in solid-state heat pumps and temperature controllers in electronics. Recently, in spintronics, a spin counterpart of the Peltier effect was observed. The ‘spin Peltier effect’ modulates the temperature of a magnetic junction in response to spin currents. Here we report thermal imaging of the spin Peltier effect; using active thermography technique, we visualize the temperature modulation induced by spin currents injected into a magnetic insulator from an adjacent metal. The thermal images reveal characteristic distribution of spin-current-induced heat sources, resulting in the temperature change confined only in the vicinity of the metal/insulator interface. This finding allows us to estimate the actual magnitude of the temperature modulation induced by the spin Peltier effect, which is more than one order of magnitude greater than previously believed. The spin Peltier effect produces a temperature difference along the direction of a spin current. Here, the authors use an active thermography technique to visualize the temperature modulation induced by a spin current injected into a magnetic insulator from an adjacent metal.