Spin drag mechanism of giant thermal magnetoresistance

Abstract

We study hydrodynamic thermal transport in high-mobility two-dimensional electron systems placed in an in-plane magnetic field, and identify a new mechanism of thermal magnetotransport. This mechanism is caused by drag between the electron populations with opposite spin polarization, which arises in the presence of a hydrodynamic flow of heat. In high mobility systems, spin drag results in strong thermal magnetoresistance, which becomes of the order of 100% at relatively small spin polarization of the electron liquid. We express the thermal magnetoresistance in terms of intrinsic dissipative coefficients of electron fluid and show that it is primarily determined by the spin diffusion constant.