中国物理B ›› 2009, Vol. 18 ›› Issue (7): 2981-2987.doi: 10.1088/1674-1056/18/7/060

• CONDENSED MATTER: ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE, ELECTRICAL, MAGNETIC, AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES • 上一篇    下一篇

Dissipationless spin-Hall current contribution in the extrinsic spin-Hall effect

颜玉珍, 李辉武, 胡梁宾   

  1. Laboratory of Quantum Information Technology, School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
  • 收稿日期:2008-12-22 修回日期:2009-01-20 出版日期:2009-07-20 发布日期:2009-07-20
  • 基金资助:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No 10874049), the State Key Program for Basic Research of China (Grant No 2007CB925204) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (Grant No 07005834).

Dissipationless spin-Hall current contribution in the extrinsic spin-Hall effect

Yan Yu-Zhen(颜玉珍), Li Hui-Wu(李辉武), and Hu Liang-Bin(胡梁宾)   

  1. Laboratory of Quantum Information Technology, School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
  • Received:2008-12-22 Revised:2009-01-20 Online:2009-07-20 Published:2009-07-20
  • Supported by:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No 10874049), the State Key Program for Basic Research of China (Grant No 2007CB925204) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (Grant No 07005834).

摘要: This paper shows that a substantial amount of dissipationless spin-Hall current contribution may exist in the extrinsic spin-Hall effect, which originates from the spin-orbit coupling induced by the applied external electric field itself that drives the extrinsic spin-Hall effect in a nonmagnetic semiconductor (or metal). By assuming that the impurity density is in a moderate range such that the total scattering potential due to all randomly distributed impurities is a smooth function of the space coordinate, it is shown that this dissipationless contribution shall be of the same orders of magnitude as the usual extrinsic contribution from spin-orbit dependent impurity scatterings (or may even be larger than the latter one). The theoretical results obtained are in good agreement with recent relevant experimental results.

Abstract: This paper shows that a substantial amount of dissipationless spin-Hall current contribution may exist in the extrinsic spin-Hall effect, which originates from the spin-orbit coupling induced by the applied external electric field itself that drives the extrinsic spin-Hall effect in a nonmagnetic semiconductor (or metal). By assuming that the impurity density is in a moderate range such that the total scattering potential due to all randomly distributed impurities is a smooth function of the space coordinate, it is shown that this dissipationless contribution shall be of the same orders of magnitude as the usual extrinsic contribution from spin-orbit dependent impurity scatterings (or may even be larger than the latter one). The theoretical results obtained are in good agreement with recent relevant experimental results.

Key words: extrinsic spin-Hall effect, spin-orbit coupling induced by external electric fields, dissipationless spin current

中图分类号:  (Galvanomagnetic and other magnetotransport effects)

  • 72.20.My
72.80.Ey (III-V and II-VI semiconductors) 71.70.Ej (Spin-orbit coupling, Zeeman and Stark splitting, Jahn-Teller effect) 61.72.up (Other materials)