No Arabic abstract
Current-induced spin polarization (CISP) is rederived in ballistic spin-orbit-coupled electron systems, based on equilibrium statistical mechanics. A simple and useful picture is correspondingly proposed to help understand the CISP and predict the polarization direction. Nonequilibrium Landauer-Keldysh formalism is applied to demonstrate the validity of the statistical picture, taking the linear Rashba-Dresselhaus [001] two-dimensional system as a specific example. Spin densities induced by the CISP in semiconductor heterostructures and in metallic surface states are compared, showing that the CISP increases with the spin splitting strength and hence suggesting that the CISP should be more observable on metal and semimetal surfaces due to the discovered strong Rashba splitting. An application of the CISP designed to generate a spin-Hall pattern in the inplane, instead of the out-of-plane, component is also proposed.
We investigate the current-induced spin polarization in the two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG) with the structure inversion asymmetry. By using the perturbation theory, we re-derive the effective $k$-cubic Rashba Hamiltonian for 2DHG and the generalized spin operators accordingly. Then based on the linear response theory we calculate the current-induced spin polarization both analytically and numerically with the disorder effect considered. We have found that, quite different from the two-dimensional electron gas, the spin polarization in 2DHG depends linearly on Fermi energy in the low doping regime, and with increasing Fermi energy, the spin polarization may be suppressed and even changes its sign. We predict a pronounced peak of the spin polarization in 2DHG once the Fermi level is somewhere between minimum points of two spin-split branches of the lowest light-hole subband. We discuss the possibility of measurements in experiments as regards the temperature and the width of quantum wells.
We derive the transport equations for two-dimensional electron systems with spin-orbit interaction and short-range spin-independent disorder. In the limit of slow spatial variations of the electron distribution we obtain coupled diffusion equations for the electron density and spin. Using these equations we calculate electric-field induced spin accumulation in a finite-size sample for arbitrary ratio between spin-orbit energy splitting and elastic scattering rate. We demonstrate that the spin-Hall conductivity vanishes in an infinite system independent of this ratio.
Spin-orbit coupling is a single-particle phenomenon known to generate topological order, and electron-electron interactions cause ordered many-body phases to exist. The rich interplay of these two mechanisms is present in a broad range of materials, and has been the subject of considerable ongoing research and controversy. Here we demonstrate that interacting two-dimensional electron systems with strong spin-orbit coupling exhibit a variety of time reversal symmetry breaking phases with unconventional spin alignment. We first prove that a Stoner-type criterion can be formulated for the spin polarization response to an electric field, which predicts that the spin polarization susceptibility diverges at a certain value of the electron-electron interaction strength. The divergence indicates the possibility of unconventional ferromagnetic phases even in the absence of any applied electric or magnetic field. This leads us, in the second part of this work, to study interacting Rashba spin-orbit coupled semiconductors in equilibrium in the Hartree-Fock approximation as a generic minimal model. Using classical Monte-Carlo simulations we construct the complete phase diagram of the system as a function of density and spin-orbit coupling strength. It includes both an out-of-plane spin polarized phase and in-plane spin-polarized phases with shifted Fermi surfaces and rich spin textures, reminiscent of the Pomeranchuk instability, as well as two different Fermi-liquid phases having one and two Fermi surfaces, respectively, which are separated by a Lifshitz transition. We discuss possibilities for experimental observation and useful application of these novel phases, especially in the context of electric-field-controlled macroscopic spin polarizations.
Using response theory, we calculate the charge-current vortex generated by spin pumping at a point-like contact in a system with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We discuss the spatial profile of the current density for finite temperature and for the zero-temperature limit. The main observation is that the Rashba spin precession leads to a charge current that oscillates as a function of the distance from the spin-pumping source, which is confirmed by numerical simulations. In our calculations, we consider a Rashba model on a square lattice, for which we first review the basic properties related to charge and spin transport. In particular, we define the charge- and spin-current operators for the tight-binding Hamiltonian as the currents coupled linearly with the U(1) and SU(2) gauge potentials, respectively. By analogy to the continuum model, the spin-orbit-coupling Hamiltonian on the lattice is then introduced as the generator of the spin current.
We present magnetotransport calculations for homogeneous two-dimensional electron systems including the Rashba spin-orbit interaction, which mixes the spin-eigenstates and leads to a modified fan-chart with crossing Landau levels. The quantum mechanical Kubo formula is evaluated by taking into account spin-conserving scatterers in an extension of the self-consistent Born approximation that considers the spin degree of freedom. The calculated conductivity exhibits besides the well-known beating in the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations a modulation which is due to a suppression of scattering away from the crossing points of Landau levels and does not show up in the density of states. This modulation, surviving even at elevated temperatures when the SdH oscillations are damped out, could serve to identify spin-orbit coupling in magnetotransport experiments. Our magnetotransport calculations are extended also to lateral superlattices and predictions are made with respect to 1/B periodic oscillations in dependence on carrier density and strength of the spin-orbit coupling.