Thermoelectric effects are a fundamental building block for the conception and development of modern processes for information processing. They enable to re-exhaust waste heat obtained in different processes for the operation of respective devices and thus contribute to the establishment of more energy-efficient,ecofriendly processes. A promising representative of this effect category is the so-called spin Seebeck effect, which became prominent within recent years. This effect allows to convert waste heat into spin currents and thereby to transport energy as well as information in magnetic, and electrically insulating materials. Physicists of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany together with their colleagues from Glasgow University in Scotland now succeeded to reveal essential properties of this yet to be fully understood effect. Their findings contribute to a more thorough understanding of the underlying processes of this effect and thereby support its further development for first applications.
Source: phys.org