ABSTRACT
The tunneling of spin-polarized electrons across a magnetic tunnel junction driven by a temperature gradient is a fundamental process for the thermal control of electron spin transport. We experimentally investigated the atomic-scale details of this magneto-Seebeck tunneling by placing a magnetic probe tip in close proximity to a magnetic sample at cryogenic temperature, with a vacuum as the tunneling barrier. Heating the tip and measuring the thermopower of the junction while scanning across the spin texture of the sample lead to spin-resolved Seebeck coefficients that can be mapped at atomic-scale lateral resolution. We propose a spin detector for spintronics applications that is driven solely by waste heat, using magneto-Seebeck tunneling to convert spin information into a voltage that can be used for further data processing.
ABSTRACT
Growth, electronic properties, and magnetic properties of an Fe monolayer (ML) on an Ir/YSZ/Si(111) multilayer system have been studied using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. Our experiments reveal a magnetic nano-skyrmion lattice, which is fully equivalent to the magnetic ground state that has previously been observed for the Fe ML on Ir(111) bulk single crystals. In addition, the experiments indicate that the interface-stabilized skyrmion lattice is robust against local atomic lattice distortions induced by multilayer preparation.
