Spin transport through magnetic insulators via magnons has been explored for a variety of crystalline materials. Here we show dramatic effects of spin transport through an amorphous magnetic insulator, which is both magnetically and structurally disordered. We observe spin flow though amorphous yttrium-iron-garnet (a-YIG) thin films in a non-local geometry by use of the spin Hall and inverse spin Hall effects in platinum strips separated by ten or more micrometres. By comparing a-YIG grown on suspended micromachined thermal isolation platforms to the same film on bulk substrates, we show strong effects of in-plane thermal gradients on spin transport in the disordered film. The resulting signals are orders of magnitude larger than those seen in crystalline magnetic insulators, and easily measurable even for distances greater than 100 μm. In analogy to heat transport in glasses, where a range of vibrational excitations can allow large thermal conductivities, we suggest that efficient spin transport in disordered systems can occur via a similar spectrum of excitations that relies on strong local exchange interactions and does not require long-range order. This opens a new area for experimental and theoretical studies of spin transport, and sets a new direction in materials science for magnonic and spintronic devices.

中文翻译：

---

无序磁绝缘体中的长距离自旋输运

对于各种晶体材料，已经探索了通过磁振子通过磁绝缘体的自旋传输。在这里，我们显示了通过无定形磁绝缘体的自旋输运的显着影响，该磁绝缘体在磁性和结构上都是无序的。通过使用自旋霍尔和逆自旋霍尔效应，在相隔十个或更多微米的铂金带中，我们观察到了非局部几何形状的无定形钇铁石榴石（a-YIG）薄膜的自旋流。通过比较在悬浮微机械热隔离平台上生长的a-YIG与块状衬底上的同一薄膜，我们显示了平面热梯度对无序薄膜中自旋传输的强烈影响。产生的信号比晶体磁绝缘子中看到的信号大几个数量级，即使距离大于100，也很容易测量 微米 与玻璃中的热传递类似，在玻璃中，一系列振动激发可以允许较大的热导率，我们建议，通过依赖于强烈的局部交换相互作用的相似激发光谱，可以在无序系统中进行有效的自旋传递，并且不需要长时间的热交换。范围顺序。这为自旋输运的实验和理论研究开辟了一个新领域，并为磁电和自旋电子器件的材料科学设定了新的方向。