Microwave Energy Harvester Based on the Magneto-Tunnel Seebeck Effect in the Nanoscale Spin-Torque Diode

At present, there is a growing interest in the field of spin caloritronics, which demonstrates the advantages of using thermoelectric effects when considering spin-transport phenomena. One of its most promising directions are the thermal transfer of the spin-transfer torque and magneto-tunnel Seebeck effect in magnetic tunnel junctions in the presence of a non-equilibrium temperature gradient across the tunnel barrier, which, in combination with the voltage rectification effect driven by the alternating current, can serve as an additional source of microwave energy harvesting and has not been considered before. In this work, we estimated the bolometric properties of a spin-torque diode based on the magnetic tunnel junction under the microwave heating, and also compared the thermal dependences of its sensitivity in comparison with the Schottky semiconductor diode. The thermal contribution to the voltage rectification can be significantly increased in some cases, which plays an important role in the development of new types of microwave energy harvesters operating on the thermoelectric effects.