Nonlocal tunnel magnetoresistance and thermal rectification effect in a nanoscale three-terminal junction

We investigate thermally driven electronic transport through a quantum dot (QD) coupled to two ferromagnetic leads and one normal-metallic lead. The effect of spin accumulation and temperature bias on the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) is examined. We obtain a nonlocal negative TMR, which also exhibits a rectification effect as a function of the QD level modulated by a gate voltage. For a negative QD level, the TMR is zero, and the TMR is negative for a positive QD level. This effect arises from the interplay of the spin accumulation and thermoelectric transport, which detects the sign reversal of spin accumulation in the QD. In addition, our system can also be used as a spin current generator.