In recent years, new spin-dependent thermal effects have been discovered in ferromagnets, stimulating a growing interest in spin caloritronics, a field that exploits the interaction between spin and heat currents . Amongst the most intriguing phenomena is the spin Seebeck effect , in which a thermal gradient gives rise to spin currents that are detected through the inverse spin Hall effect . Non-magnetic materials such as graphene are also relevant for spin caloritronics, thanks to efficient spin transport , energy-dependent carrier mobility and unique density of states . Here, we propose and demonstrate that a carrier thermal gradient in a graphene lateral spin valve can lead to a large increase of the spin voltage near to the graphene charge neutrality point. Such an increase results from a thermoelectric spin voltage, which is analogous to the voltage in a thermocouple and that can be enhanced by the presence of hot carriers generated by an applied current . These results could prove crucial to drive graphene spintronic devices and, in particular, to sustain pure spin signals with thermal gradients and to tune the remote spin accumulation by varying the spin-injection bias.

Thermoelectric effects in spintronics are gathering increasing attention as a means of managing heat in nanoscale structures and of controlling spin information by using heat flow. Thermal magnons (spin-wave quanta) are expected to play a major role; however, little is known about the underlying physical mechanisms involved. The reason is the lack of information about magnon interactions and of reliable methods to obtain it, in particular for electrical conductors because of the intricate influence of electrons. Here, we demonstrate a conceptually new device that enables us to gather information on magnon-electron scattering and magnon-drag effects. The device resembles a thermopile formed by a large number of pairs of ferromagnetic wires placed between a hot and a cold source and connected thermally in parallel and electrically in series. By controlling the relative orientation of the magnetization in pairs of wires, the magnon drag can be studied independently of the electron and phonon-drag thermoelectric effects. Measurements as a function of temperature reveal the effect on magnon drag following a variation of magnon and phonon populations. This information is crucial to understand the physics of electron-magnon interactions, magnon dynamics and thermal spin transport.

We report on electric-field and temperature dependent transport measurements in exfoliated thin crystals of Bi 2 Se 3 topological insulator. At low temperatures (< 50 K) and when the chemical potential lies inside the bulk gap, the crystal resistivity is strongly temperature dependent, reflecting inelastic scattering due to the thermal activation of optical phonons. A linear increase of the current with voltage is obtained up to a threshold value at which current saturation takes place. We show that the activated behavior, the voltage threshold and the saturation current can all be quantitatively explained by considering a single optical phonon mode with energy Ω ≈ 8 meV. This phonon mode strongly interacts with the surface states of the material and represents the dominant source of scattering at the surface at high electric fields.