We study the Seebeck effect in the three-dimensional Dirac electron system based on the linear response theory with Luttingers gravitational potential. The Seebeck coefficient $S$ is defined by $S = L_{12} / L_{11} T$, where $T$ is the temperature, a
nd $L_{11}$ and $L_{12}$ are the longitudinal response coefficients of the charge current to the electric field and to the temperature gradient, respectively; $L_{11}$ is the electric conductivity and $L_{12}$ is the thermo-electric conductivity. It is confirmed that $L_{11}$ and $L_{12}$ are related through Motts formula in low temperatures. The dependences of the Seebeck coefficient on the chemical potential $mu$ and the temperature $T$ when the chemical potential lies in the band gap ($|mu| < Delta$) are partially captured by $S propto (Delta - mu) / k_{mathrm{B}} T$ for $mu > 0$ as in semiconductors. The Seebeck coefficient takes the relatively large value $|S| simeq 1.7 ,mathrm{m V/K}$ at $T simeq 8.7,mathrm{K}$ for $Delta = 15 ,mathrm{m eV}$ by assuming doped bismuth.
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.
Employing unbiased large-scale time-dependent density-matrix renormalization-group simulations, we demonstrate the generation of a charge-current vortex via spin injection in the Rashba system. The spin current is polarized perpendicular to the syste
m plane and injected from an attached antiferromagnetic spin chain. We discuss the conversion between spin and orbital angular momentum in the current vortex that occurs because of the conservation of the total angular momentum and the spin-orbit interaction. This is in contrast to the spin Hall effect, in which the angular-momentum conservation is violated. Finally, we predict the electromagnetic field that accompanies the vortex with regard to possible future experiments.
Electron transport in magnetic orders and the magnetic orders dynamics have a mutual dependence, which provides the key mechanisms in spin-dependent phenomena. Recently, antiferromagnetic orders are focused on as the magnetic order, where current-ind
uced spin-transfer torques, a typical effect of electron transport on the magnetic order, have been debatable mainly because of the lack of an analytic derivation based on quantum field theory. Here, we construct the microscopic theory of spin-transfer torques on the slowly-varying staggered magnetization in antiferromagnets with weak canting. In our theory, the electron is captured by bonding/antibonding states, each of which is the eigenstate of the system, doubly degenerates, and spatially spreads to sublattices because of electron hopping. The spin of the eigenstates depends on the momentum in general, and a nontrivial spin-momentum locking arises for the case with no site inversion symmetry, without considering any spin-orbit couplings. The spin current of the eigenstates includes an anomalous component proportional to a kind of gauge field defined by derivatives in momentum space and induces the adiabatic spin-transfer torques on the magnetization. Unexpectedly, we find that one of the nonadiabatic torques has the same form as the adiabatic spin-transfer torque, while the obtained forms for the adiabatic and nonadiabatic spin-transfer torques agree with the phenomenological derivation based on the symmetry consideration. This finding suggests that the conventional explanation for the spin-transfer torques in antiferromagnets should be changed. Our microscopic theory provides a fundamental understanding of spin-related physics in antiferromagnets.
The interaction between spin and nanomechanical degrees of freedom attracts interest from the viewpoint of basic science and device applications. We study the magnon current induced by the torsional oscillation of ferromagnetic nanomechanical cantile
ver. We find that a finite Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction emerges by the torsional oscillation, which is described by the spin gauge field, and the DM interaction leads to the detectably-large magnon current with frequency same as that of the torsional oscillation. Our theory paves the way for studying torsional spin-nanomechanical phenomena by using the spin gauge field.
We study valley-dependent spin transport theoretically in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides in which a variety of spin and valley physics are expected because of spin-valley coupling. The results show that the spins are valley-selectively ex
cited with appropriate carrier doping and valley polarized spin current (VPSC) is generated. The VPSC leads to the spin-current Hall effect, transverse spin accumulation originating from the Berry curvature in momentum space. The results indicate that spin excitations with spin-valley coupling lead to both valley and spin transport, which is promising for future low-consumption nanodevice applications.
We investigate an interfacial spin-transfer torque and $beta$-term torque with alternating current (AC) parallel to a magnetic interface. We find that both torques are resonantly enhanced as the AC frequency approaches to the exchange splitting energ
y. We show that this resonance allows us to estimate directly the interfacial exchange interaction strength from the domain wall motion. We also find that the $beta$-term includes an unconventional contribution which is proportional to the time derivative of the current and exists even in absence of any spin relaxation processes.
We theoretically investigate a manipulation method of nonequilibrium spin accumulation in the paramagnetic normal metal of a spin pumping system, by using the spin precession motion combined with the spin diffusion transport. We demonstrate based on
the Bloch-Torrey equation that the direction of the nonequilibrium spin accumulation is changed by applying an additional external magnetic field, and consequently, the inverse spin Hall voltage in an adjacent paramagnetic heavy metal changes its sign. We find that the spin relaxation time and the spin diffusion length are simultaneously determined by changing the magnitude of the external magnetic field and the thickness of the normal metal in a commonly-used spin pumping system.
We show theoretically that conversion between spin and charge by spin-orbit interaction in metals occurs even in a non-local setup where magnetization and spin-orbit interaction are spatially separated if electron diffusion is taken into account. Cal
culation is carried out for the Rashba spin-orbit interaction treating the coupling with a ferromagnet perturbatively. The results indicate the validity of the concept of effective spin gauge field (spin motive force) in the non-local configuration. The inverse Rashba-Edelstein effect observed for a trilayer of a ferromagnet, a normal metal and a heavy metal can be explained in terms of the non-local effective spin gauge field.
As a strongly spin-orbit coupled metallic model with ferromagnetism, we have considered an extended Stoner model to the relativistic regime, named Dirac ferromagnet in three dimensions. In the previous paper~[Phys. Rev. B 90, 214418 (2014)], we stu
died the transport properties giving rise to the anisotropic magnetoresistance~(AMR) and the anomalous Hall effect~(AHE) with the impurity potential being taken into account only as the self-energy. The effects of the vertex corrections~(VCs) to AMR and AHE are reported in this paper. AMR is found not to change quantitatively when the VCs is considered, although the transport lifetime is different from the one-electron lifetime and the charge current includes additional contributions from the correlation with spin currents. The side-jump and the skew-scattering contributions to AHE are also calculated. The skew-scattering contribution is dominant in the clean case as can be seen in the spin Hall effect in the non-magnetic Dirac electron system.
