Theory of spin transport induced by the temperature gradient

Abstract

Spin transport driven by the temperature gradient in ferromagnetic metals is studied based on a microscopic theory. It is shown that the temperature gradient works as an effective field equivalent to the electric field as for both the spin current generation and the spin relaxation torque. The thermally driven contribution of the spin current and the relaxation torque are thus proportional to $\nabla T$ and $\nabla^2 T$, respectively.