Voltage-Controlled Sensitivity of the Spin Seebeck Effect in Pt/Y3Fe5O12/MgO/(PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3)0.7(PbTiO3)0.3 Multiferroic Heterostructures

Voltage control of magnetoelectric properties is important for low-power spintronic devices, but voltage manipulation of pure-spin-current transport in spin-caloritronic devices has remained elusive, as there is no proper material system to achieve it. The authors show how to use a Pt/YIG/MgO/PMNT multiferroic heterostructure to control the sensitivity of the spin Seebeck effect by voltage. Electrostrain in the PMNT layer alters magnetic anisotropy in the YIG layer, without suppressing spin current or the inverse spin Hall effect in the Pt/YIG bilayer. This seems very promising for devices employing pure spin current, with no flow of charge.