A platinum (Pt)/yttrium iron garnet (YIG) bilayer system with a well-controlled interface has been developed; spin mixing conductance at the Pt/YIG interface has been studied. Crystal perfection at the interface is experimentally demonstrated to cont
ribute to large spin mixing conductance. The spin mixing conductance is obtained to be $1.3times10^{18} rm{m^{-2}}$ at the well-controlled Pt/YIG interface, which is close to a theoretical prediction.
We experimentally demonstrate the manipulation of magnetization relaxation utilizing a temperature difference across the thickness of an yttrium iron garnet/platinum (YIG/Pt) hetero-structure: the damping is either increased or decreased depending on
the sign of the temperature gradient. This effect might be explained by a thermally-induced spin torque on the magnetization precession. The heat-induced variation of the damping is detected by microwave techniques as well as by a DC voltage caused by spin pumping into the adjacent Pt layer and the subsequent conversion into a charge current by the inverse spin Hall effect.
The spin pumping efficiency of lateral standing spin wave modes in a rectangular YIG/Pt sample has been investigated by means of the inverse spin-Hall effect (ISHE). The standing spin waves drive spin pumping, the generation of spin currents from mag
netization precession, into the Pt layer which is converted into a detectable voltage due to the ISHE. We discovered that the spin pumping efficiency is significantly higher for lateral standing surface spin waves rather than for volume spin wave modes. The results suggest that the use of higher-mode surface spin waves allows for the fabrication of an efficient spin-current injector.
