Thermoelectric properties of a ferromagnet-superconductor hybrid junction: Role of interfacial Rashba spin-orbit interaction

TL;DR

This paper explores how interfacial Rashba spin-orbit interaction influences thermoelectric effects in a ferromagnet-superconductor junction, revealing conditions for enhanced thermopower and high figure of merit.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed scattering matrix analysis of thermoelectric properties considering Rashba spin-orbit interaction and potential barriers at the interface, highlighting conditions for optimal thermoelectric performance.

Findings

Thermal conductance exhibits a crossover behavior with temperature and polarization.

Seebeck coefficient increases with barrier strength and polarization, especially near half-metallicity.

Figure of merit zT reaches values of 4-5, indicating high thermoelectric efficiency.

Abstract

We investigate thermoelectric properties of a ferromagnet-superconductor hybrid structure with Rashba spin-orbit interaction and delta function potential barrier at the interfacial layer. The exponential rise of thermal conductance with temperature manifests a cross-over temperature scale separating two opposite behaviors of it with the change of polarization in the ferromagnet whereas the inclusion of interfacial Rashba spin-orbit field results in a non-monotonic behavior of it with the strength of Rashba field. We employ scattering matrix approach to determine the amplitudes of all the scattering processes possible at the interface to explain the thermoelectric properties of the device. We examine Seebeck effect and show that higher thermopower can be achieved when the polarization of the ferromagnet tends towards the half-metallic limit. It can be enhanced even for lower polarization in presence of the finite potential barrier. In presence of interfacial Rashba spin-orbit interaction, Seebeck coefficient rises with the increase of barrier strength and polarization at weak or moderate interfacial Rashba field. From the application perspective, we compute the figure of merit and show that $zT\sim 4-5$ with higher polarization of the ferromagnet both in absence and presence of weak or moderate Rashba spin-orbit interaction along with the scalar potential barrier.