Spin Seebeck effect (SSE) has been investigated in thin films of two Y-hexagonal ferrites Ba2Zn2Fe12O22 (Zn2Y) and Ba2Co2Fe12O22 (Co2Y) deposited by a spin-coating method on SrTiO3(111) substrate. The selected hexagonal ferrites are both ferrimagnetic with similar magnetic moments at room temperature and both exhibit easy magnetization plane normal to c-axis. Despite that, SSE signal was only observed for Zn2Y, whereas no significant SSE signal was detected for Co2Y. We tentatively explain this different behavior by a presence of two different magnetic ions in Co2Y, whose random distribution over octahedral sites interferes the long range ordering and enhances the Gilbert damping constant. The temperature dependence of SSE for Zn2Y was measured and analyzed with regard to the heat flux and temperature gradient relevant to the SSE signal.

Two granular ceramics were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 600–800 °C and classical ceramic sintering (CCS) at 900 °C using molten salt synthesized nanoparticles of the composition La0.53Sr0.47MnO3 and  ≈40 nm size. Extensive study of the structural, magnetic, and electric transport properties showed that the SPS and CCS products essentially retain the two-phase magnetic structure of the starting nanoparticles, which consist of a ferromagnetic (FM) core and an A-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) shell. After the sintering, the AFM phase forms a 10–15 nm thick spacer between neighbouring FM granules, which represents a barrier for the transmission of spin-polarized eg carriers. This assembly retains reasonable conductivity down to the lowest temperatures, without marked localization, and it still gives rise to a large negative magnetoresistance, which is treated theoretically in terms of low- and high-field positive magnetoconductance. In a detailed analysis of these low-field magnetoconductance (LFMC) and high-field magnetoconductance (HFMC) effects, which are related to the field-induced alignment of the FM granules and spin canting in the AFM matrix, respectively, we conclude that the bulk conductivity is governed by resonant tunnelling, i.e. the second-order transmission via Mn4+ sites in the intergranular space. The experimental data on the SPS product confirm the theoretically predicted scaling of the LFMC effect with squared reduced magnetization, and also provide also a quantitative comparison between the linear coefficient of the HFMC and the high-field paraprocess seen in the magnetization measurement.

No abstract