Evaluation of thermal gradients in longitudinal spin Seebeck effect measurements

In the framework of the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE), we developed an experimental setup for the characterization of LSSE devices. This class of device consists in a layered structure formed by a substrate, a ferrimagnetic insulator (YIG) where the spin current is thermally generated, and a paramagnetic metal (Pt) for the detection of the spin current via the inverse spin-Hall effect. In this kind of experiments, the evaluation of a thermal gradient through the thin YIG layer is a crucial point. In this work, we perform an indirect determination of the thermal gradient through the measurement of the heat flux. We developed an experimental setup using Peltier cells that allow us to measure the heat flux through a given sample. In order to test the technique, a standard LSSE device produced at Tohoku University was measured. We find a spin Seebeck S_SSE coefficient of 2.8 × 10-7 V K^-1.