Thermal generation of spin current in a multiferroic helimagnet

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of longitudinal spin Seebeck effect in a multiferroic helimagnet Ba0.5Sr1.5Zn2Fe12O22. Temperature gradient applied normal to Ba0.5Sr1.5Zn2Fe12O22/Pt interface generates inverse spin Hall voltage of spin current origin in Pt, whose magnitude was found to be proportional to bulk magnetization of Ba0.5Sr1.5Zn2Fe12O22 even through the successive magnetic transitions among various helimagnetic and ferrimagnetic phases. This finding demonstrates that the helimagnetic spin wave can be an effective carrier of spin current. By controlling the population ratio of spin-helicity domains characterized by clockwise/counter-clockwise manner of spin rotation with use of poling electric field in the ferroelectric helimagnetic phase, we found that spin-helicity domain distribution does not affect the magnitude of spin current injected into Pt. The results suggest that the spin-wave spin current is rather robust against the spin-helicity domain wall, unlike the case with the conventional ferromagnetic domain wall.