Proposal for a local heating driven spin current generator

Abstract

We propose a two-terminal spin-orbit interferometer with a hot molecule inserted in one of its arms to generate pure spin currents. Local heating is achieved by coupling the vibrational modes of the molecule to a third (phononic) reservoir. We show that this spin caloritronic effect is due to the combined influence of spin-dependent wave interference and inelastic scattering. Remarkably, the device converts heat flow into spin-polarized current even without applying any voltage or temperature difference to the electronic terminals. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.