Spin Transport in Two Dimensional Hopping Systems

Abstract

A two dimensional hopping system with Rashba spin-orbit interaction is considered. Our main interest is concerned with the evolution of the spin degree of freedom of the electrons. We derive the rate equations governing the evolution of the charge density and spin polarization of this system in the Markovian limit in one-particle approximation. If only two-site hopping events are taken into account, the evolution of the charge density and of the spin polarization is found to be decoupled. A critical electric field is found, above which oscillations are superimposed on the temporal decay of the total polarization. A coupling between charge density and spin polarization occurs on the level of three-site hopping events. The coupling terms are identified as the anomalous Hall effect and the recently proposed spin Hall effect. Thus, an unpolarized charge current through a sheet of finite width leads to a transversal spin accumulation in our model system.

15 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Spin Hall effect
• Theory of the anomalous Hall effect from the Kubo formula and the Dirac equation
• The Rashba Hamiltonian and electron transport
• The Anderson Transition in Two-Dimensional Systems with Spin-Orbit Coupling
• Spin-drift transport and its applications
• Spin relaxation in a Rashba semiconductor in an electric field

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Decoherence of transported spin in multichannel spin-orbit coupled spintronic devices: Scattering approach to spin density matrix from the ballistic to the localized regime
• Coherent wave-packet evolution in coupled bands
• Generation of spin currents and spin densities in systems with reduced symmetry
• On boundary conditions for spin diffusion equations with Rashba spin-orbit interaction
• On the nature of steady states of spin distributions in the presence of spin-orbit interactions
• Orbital ac spin-Hall effect in the hopping regime
• Electrical spin orientation, spin-galvanic and spin-Hall effects in disordered two-dimensional systems
• Electric generation of spin in crystals with reduced symmetry
• Spin polarization in biased Rashba-Dresselhaus two-dimensional electron systems
• Magnetotransport in the insulating regime of Mn doped GaAs
• Microscopic theory of OMAR based on kinetic equations for quantum spin correlations
• Excitation of spin waves on a cylindrical semiconductor heterostructure with Rashba spin-orbit interaction
• Transport in the metallic regime of Mn doped III-V Semiconductors
• Spin Transport in Disordered Two-Dimensional Hopping Systems with Rashba Spin-Orbit Interaction
• Steady-state spin densities and currents
• Spin-Hall effect in semiconductor heterostructures with cubic Rashba spin-orbit interaction