Thermal spin transport and spin transfer torque in ferromagnetic/non-magnetic nanoscale devices

PhD ceremony: Mr. A. Slachter, 12.45 uur, Aula Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: Thermal spin transport and spin transfer torque in ferromagnetic/non-magnetic nanoscale devices

Promotor(s): prof. B.J. van Wees

Faculty: Mathematics and Natural Sciences

This dissertation describes fundamental experiments which investigate the coupling between the electric, magnetic and thermal properties of electron transport. Several devices were constructed to accomplish this goal. The devices were created with the aid of electron-beam and optical lithography. The fabricated structures are lateral, which means they are oriented parallel to the Silicon substrate on which they are fabricated. This research connects the two existing research areas of spin-based electronics and caloritronics to a new research area: spin caloritronics.

The dissertation is split up in two parts. In the first part, we describe experiments which are aimed to demonstrate the coupling between the electrical, magnetic en thermal properties of electron transport. In the second part we describe experiments and theory which investigates the influence of spin-currents on spin-transfer torque. For all experiments, we make use of metallic spin-valves, which exist from the magnetic alloy Permalloy and copper.