Thermally driven long-range magnon spin currents in yttrium iron garnet due to intrinsic spin Seebeck effect

The longitudinal spin Seebeck effect refers to the generation of a spin current when heat flows across a normal metal/magnetic insulator interface. Most explanations of the spin Seebeck effect use the interfacial temperature difference as the conversion mechanism between heat and spin fluxes. However, recent theoretical and experimental works claim that a magnon spin current is generated in the bulk of a magnetic insulator even in the absence of an interface. This is the so-called intrinsic spin Seebeck effect. Here, by utilizing a nonlocal spin Seebeck geometry, we provide additional evidence that the totalmagnon spin current in the ferrimagnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet (YIG) actually contains two distinct terms: one proportional to the gradient in the magnon chemical potential (pure magnon spin diffusion), and a second proportional to the gradient in magnon temperature (del T-m). We observe two characteristic decay lengths for magnon spin currents in YIG with distinct temperature dependences: a temperature independent decay length of similar to 10 mu m consistent with earlier measurements of pure (del T-m = 0) magnon spin diffusion, and a longer decay length ranging from about 20 mu m around 250 K and exceeding 80 mu m at 10 K. The coupled spin-heat transport processes are modeled using a finite element method revealing that the longer-range magnon spin current is attributable to the intrinsic spin Seebeck effect (del T-m not equal 0), whose length scale increases at lower temperatures in agreement with our experimental data.