Room-temperature spin thermoelectrics in metallic films

Abstract

Considering metallic films at room temperature, we present the first theoretical study of the spin Nernst and thermal Edelstein effects that takes into account dynamical spin-orbit coupling, i.e., direct spin-orbit coupling with the vibrating lattice (phonons) and impurities. This gives rise to a novel process, namely, a dynamical side-jump mechanism, and to dynamical Elliott-Yafet spin relaxation, never before considered in this context. Both are the high-temperature counterparts of the well-known T=0 side-jump and Elliott-Yafet, central to the current understanding of the spin Hall, spin Nernst and Edelstein (current-induced spin polarization) effects at low T. We consider the experimentally relevant regime T>TD, with TD the Debye temperature, as the latter is lower than room temperature in transition metals such as Pt, Au and Ta typically employed in spin injection/extraction experiments. We show that the interplay between intrinsic (Bychkov-Rashba type) and extrinsic (dynamical) spin-orbit coupling yields a nonlinear T dependence of the spin Nernst and spin Hall conductivities.