Spin caloritronics in two-dimensional CrI3/NiCl2 van derWaals heterostructures

Two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures have recently emerged as attractive candidates to work as spintronic and optoelectronic devices. Here, two types of magnetic CrI3/NiCl2 vdW heterostructures are constructed to design spin caloritronic devices. The first-principles calculations uncover that the magnetic configurations of CrI3/NiCl2 vdW heterostructures can be converted easily to a ferromagnetic, an antiferromagnetic, and even a bipolar magnetic semiconducting state by an external electric field. More interestingly, two thermal spin-dependent currents with opposite spin orientations can be driven by a temperature gradient to flow in opposite transport directions independently in the different layers of vdW heterostructures, demonstrating that the CrI3/NiCl2 vdW heterostructures can exhibit a nearly perfect thermal spin-filtering effect in each layer while generating a well-defined spin-Seebeck effect in the whole system. Our work puts forward a class of material candidates to design spin caloritronic devices characterized by multiple inspiring thermal-spin transport behaviors.

Automated summary

Research has constructed two types of magnetic CrI3/NiCl2 vdW heterostructures that can be easily converted to different magnetic semiconducting states by an external electric field. Under a temperature gradient, two thermal spin-dependent currents with opposite spin orientations can flow independently in different layers, showing a nearly perfect thermal spin-filtering effect and a well-defined spin-Seebeck effect.