Embedded platinum channels bring nanoscale spin-based thermoelectric conversion to bulk materials

A joint research team from NIMS and the University of Tokyo has developed a new composite in which three-dimensional nano-interfaces are distributed throughout the material by coating the surfaces of magnetic-insulator powders with a metal and sintering them. Using this structure, the team succeeded in observing thermoelectric conversion driven by spins in an insulator, a phenomenon previously observed only at nanoscale thin-film interfaces, in a macroscale material.