Ab initio calculation of intrinsic spin Hall conductivity of Pd and Au

G. Y. Guo

doi:10.1063/1.3054362

paper

Ab initio calculation of intrinsic spin Hall conductivity of Pd and Au

arXiv:0901.3287 · doi:10.1063/1.3054362

Abstract

An {\it ab initio} relativistic band structure calculation of spin Hall conductivity (SHC) ( $σ_{x y}^{z}$ ) in Pd and Au metals has been performed. It is found that at low temperatures, intrinsic SHCs for Pd and Au are, respectively, $\sim 1400 (ℏ/ e) (Ω cm)^{- 1}$ and $\sim 400 (ℏ/ e) (Ω cm)^{- 1}$ . The large SHC in Pd comes from the resonant contribution from the spin-orbit splitting of the doubly degenerated 4 $d$ bands near the Fermi level at symmetry $Γ$ and X points, and the smaller SHC in Au is due to the broad free electron like 6 $s 6 p$ -bands. However, as the temperature increases, the SHC in Pd decreases monotonically and reduces to $\sim 330 (ℏ/ e) (Ω cm)^{- 1}$ at 300 K, while the SHC in Au increases steadily and reaches $\sim 750 (ℏ/ e) (Ω cm)^{- 1}$ at room temperature. This indicates that the gigantic spin Hall effect [ $σ_{x y}^{z} \approx 1 0^{5} (ℏ/ e) (Ω cm)^{- 1}$ ] observed recently in the Au/FePt system [T. Seki, {\it et al.}, Nature Materials {\bf 7}, 125 (2008)] is due to the extrinsic mechanisms such as the skew scattering by the impurities in Au.

Accepted for publication in J. Appl. Phys

Ab initio calculation of intrinsic spin Hall conductivity of Pd and Au

Abstract

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