Unravelling the source of anomalously large spin Seebeck effect in Fe3O4:Pt bilayer thin films

The spin Seebeck effect is a newly discovered phenomenon that if harnessed, could result in a significant improvement of the efficiency of thermoelectric energy generators. Spin polarised neutron reflectivity, with the addition of the off-specular information provided by the OSMOND detector, will provide us with complementary measurements that enable determination of the spin polarisation of the film as well as surface morphology at the interface. This is especially important as the influence of the interface (i.e. the micro and macro scale roughness) is still not well understood. We propose using PNR in conjunction with the OSMOND detector to investigate the magnetic structure (as a function of depth), whilst qualitatively comparing the degree of off specular scattering due to micro and macro scale morphological features at the interface.