Using Asymmetric Crystals for New Functionality: Moving Spins with Heat Using Spin-Orbit Coupling and Dopant-less Diodes Using Polarization Charge
The lack of inversion symmetry in certain crystals leads to interesting properties. Two such properties, the spin-orbit effect and polarization charge, can be exploited for new thermoelectric and optoelectronic devices. In the first part of the talk, I will introduce the heat/spin conversion phenomenon, the spin-Seebeck effect. Phonons interact with the magnetic moments in a material driving them away from equilibrium inducing a diffusive spin current, which can be converted in a neighboring material into an electric voltage.