Frequency-dependent Phonon-mediated Unidirectional Magnetoresistance in a Metal on an Insulator with Highly Nonequilibrium Magnons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that frequency-dependent phonon-mediated effects significantly enhance unidirectional magnetoresistance in heavy metal/magnetic insulator bilayers by considering local nonequilibrium magnon dynamics, surpassing existing theories.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical model that accounts for local nonequilibrium in magnon chemical potential and temperature, explaining the frequency dependence of magnetoresistance and spin caloritronic effects.

Findings

Unidirectional MR is greatly enhanced by spin Peltier and electron-phonon interactions.

Frequency dependence is linked to reduced thermal penetration depth at high frequencies.

Model aligns with observed magnon spin diffusion lengths at high frequencies.

Abstract

Heavy metal (HM)/magnet bilayers host many magnetoresistances (MR) and spin caloritronic effects. Here we show that the spin Peltier effect and electron-phonon scattering produce much larger unidirectional MR of an HM on a magnetic insulator than existing theories that neglect the interplay between MR and spin caloritronic effects. By accounting for local nonequilibrium in both the magnon chemical potential and temperature, our analytical model attributes the observed frequency dependence of the spin Peltier MR and the spin Seebeck effect to the reduction of the thermal penetration depth, which approaches the 1 micron scale magnon spin diffusion length at high frequencies.