Thermally driven spin current in DNA

An emerging field that has generated a wide range of interest, spin caloritronics, is an offshoot of spintronics that explores how heat currents transport electron spin. Spin caloritronics researchers are particularly interested in how waste heat could be used to power next-generation spintronic devices. Some of these potential devices range from ultrafast computers that need next to no power, to magnetic nanoparticles that deliver drugs to cells.

The thermally driven transport application of spin caloritronics is based on the Seebeck effect. In this phenomenon, the temperature difference between a ferromagnet (FM) and a nonmagnetic metal (NM) produces athermoelectricvoltage, and converts the heat directly into electricity at the junction between the two materials.

Recently, researchers from the China University of Mining and Technology have theoretically exposed the fundamental aspects of this thermal transport along double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) molecules. The researchers reported their findings in the Journal of Applied Physics.

"The results of our research open up the possibility of creating new functional thermoelectric devices based on dsDNA and other organic molecules," said Long Bai, a China University researcher and a co-author of the paper.