Quasiclassical theory of the spin-orbit magnetoresistance of three-dimensional Rashba metals

Abstract

The magnetoresistance of a three-dimensional Rashba material placed on top of a ferromagnetic insulator is theoretically investigated. In addition to the intrinsic Rashba spin-orbit interaction, we also consider extrinsic spin-orbit coupling via side-jump and skew scattering, and the Elliott-Yafet spin relaxation mechanism. The latter is anisotropic due to the mass anisotropy which reflects the noncentrosymmetric crystal structure of three-dimensional Rashba metals. A quasiclassical approach is employed to derive a set of coupled spin-diffusion equations, which are supplemented by boundary conditions that account for the spin-transfer torque at the interface of the bilayer. The magnetoresistance is fully determined by the current-induced spin polarization, i.e., it cannot in general be ascribed to a single (bulk) spin Hall angle. Our theoretical results reproduce several features of the experiments, at least qualitatively, and contain established phenomenological results in the relevant limiting cases. In particular, the anisotropy of the Elliott-Yafet spin relaxation mechanism plays a major role for the interpretation of the observed magnetoresistance.

arXiv comment17 pages (preprint style), 3 figures

References in corpus (32)

• Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications
• Spin Hall effect
• Direct electronic measurement of the spin Hall effect
• Experimental observation of the spin-Hall effect in a two dimensional spin-orbit coupled semiconductor system
• Spin Hall Magnetoresistance Induced by a Non-Equilibrium Proximity Effect
• Theory of spin Hall magnetoresistance
• Spin current and polarization in impure 2D electron systems with spin-orbit coupling
• Unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance in ferromagnet/normal metal bilayers
• Current induced electron spin polarization in strained semiconductors
• Giant Rashba Splitting in CH3NH3PbBr3 Organic-Inorganic Perovskite
• Spin Hall magnetoresistance in metallic bilayers
• Rashba-Edelstein Magnetoresistance in Metallic Heterostructure
• Correlation between the spin Hall angle and the structural phases of early 5d transition metals
• Equilibrium spin currents: Non-Abelian gauge invariance and color diamagnetism in condensed matter
• Spin-transfer in diffusive ferromagnet-normal metal systems with spin-flip scattering
• Intrinsic Spin Hall Edges
• Quasiclassical approach to the spin-Hall effect in the two-dimensional electron gas
• Spin-orbit interaction in a two-dimensional electron gas: a SU(2) formulation
• Non-Abelian gauge fields in the gradient expansion: generalized Boltzmann and Eilenberger equations
• Small-angle impurity scattering and the spin Hall conductivity in 2D systems
• Diffusive and precessional spin dynamics in a two-dimensional electron gas with disorder: a gauge theory view
• Quantum interference and electron-electron interactions at strong spin-orbit coupling in disordered systems
• Intrinsic magnetoresistance in metal films on ferromagnetic insulators
• Theory of current-induced spin polarizations in an electron gas
• Observation of spin-orbit magnetoresistance in metallic thin films on magnetic insulators
• Spin relaxation in narrow wires of a two-dimensional electron gas
• Intrinsic spin current for an arbitrary Hamiltonian and scattering potential
• Extracting current-induced spins: spin boundary conditions at narrow Hall contacts
• Nonlinear anomalous Hall effect and negative magnetoresistance in a system with random Rashba field
• Spin-charge coupled dynamics driven by a time-dependent magnetization
• Anisotropy of transport in bulk Rashba metals
• Spin Hall magnetoresistance and spin Nernst magnetothermopower: role of the inverse spin galvanic effect

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Microscopic Theory of the Spin Hall Magnetoresistance
• Spin-Hall magnetoresistance in quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnetic insulator/metal bilayer systems
• Microscopic theory of Rashba-Edelstein magnetoresistance
• The spin Hall effect
• Fluctuation theorem for spin transport at insulating ferromagnetic junctions