Control of anomalous Nernst effect in spintronic materials

The anomalous Nernst effect (ANE), one of the thermomagnetic effects studied for a long time, is attracting attention again owing to the increased interest in spin caloritronics. Control of the ANE is an essential topic for not only clarifying the interplay among heat, spin, and charge but also application to high-efficiency energy-harvesting devices. In this review, various topics related to the modulation of the ANE are discussed and the possibility of methods for its thermoelectric application are discussed. Systematic studies of the material dependence of the ANE and the discovery of anisotropy in the ANE are reviewed. Enhancement of the ANE in granular thin films and control of the ANE in a ferromagnetic oxide thin film by electric field are also reported. This review provides physical knowledge of the modulation of the ANE and proposes several ways of effectively utilizing the ANE in the “hot” spin caloritronic field.