Current heating induced spin Seebeck effect

A measurement technique for the spin Seebeck effect is presented, wherein the normal metal layer used for its detection is exploited simultaneously as a resistive heater and thermometer. We show how the various contributions to the measured total signal can be disentangled, allowing to extract the voltage signal solely caused by the spin Seebeck effect. To this end, we performed measurements as a function of the external magnetic field strength and its orientation. We find that the effect scales linearly with the induced rise in temperature, as expected for the spin Seebeck effect. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.