Abstract
Nickel (II) oxide is a prominent candidate for spintronic and spin-caloritronic applications operating at room temperature. Although there are extensive studies on nickel oxide, the roles of magnon- and spin-phonon interactions on thermal transport are not well understood. In the present work, the relationship between spin-phonon interactions and thermal transport is investigated by performing inelastic neutron scattering, time-domain thermoreflectance thermal conductivity measurements, and atomistic thermal transport calculations. Inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the magnon lifetime imply that magnon thermal conductivity is trivial, and so heat is conducted only by phonons. Time-domain thermoreflectance measurements of the thermal conductivity vs. temperature follow T−1.5 in the antiferromagnetic phase. This temperature dependence cannot be explained by phonon-isotope and phonon-defect scattering or phonon softening. Instead, we attribute this to magnon-phonon scattering and spin-induced dynamic symmetry breaking. The spin-phonon interactions are saturated in the paramagnetic phase and lead to a weaker temperature dependence of T−1.0 at 550–700 K. These results reveal the importance of spin-phonon interactions on lattice thermal transport, shedding light on the engineering of functional antiferromagnetic spintronic and spin-caloritronic materials through these interactions.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 101094 |
Journal | Materials Today Physics |
Volume | 35 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2023 |
Funding
Q.S. Y.S. S.H. and C.L. are supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No 1750786. S.H. and R.W. are supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1847632, and by the Army Research Office under Grant No. W911NF-18-1-0364 and No. W911NF-20-1-0274. This research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A part of this research was undertaken on the TAIPAN beamline at OPAL reactor, ANSTO. Q.S., Y.S., S.H. and C.L. are supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No 1750786 . S.H. and R.W. are supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1847632 , and by the Army Research Office under Grant No. W911NF-18-1-0364 and No. W911NF-20-1-0274 . This research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A part of this research was undertaken on the TAIPAN beamline at OPAL reactor, ANSTO.
Funders | Funder number |
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National Science Foundation | 1750786, 1847632 |
National Science Foundation | |
Army Research Office | W911NF-20-1-0274, W911NF-18-1-0364 |
Army Research Office | |
Office of Science | |
Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
Keywords
- Magnon and phonon dynamics
- Magnon thermal conductivity
- Nickel oxide
- Phonon thermal conductivity
- Spin-phonon interaction