Kinetic magnetoelectric effect in a 2D semiconductor strip due to boundary-confinement induced spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

In a thin strip of a two-dimensional semiconductor electronic system, spin-orbit coupling may be induced near both edges of the strip due to the substantial spatial variation of the confining potential in the boundary regions. In this paper we show that, in the presence of boundary-confinement induced spin-orbit coupling, a longitudinal charge current circulating through a 2D semiconductor strip may cause \textit{strong} non-equilibrium spin accumulation near both edges of the strip. The spins will be polarized along the normal of the 2DEG plane but in opposite directions at both edges of the strip. This phenomenon is essentially a kinetic magnetoelectric effect from the theoretical points of view, but it manifests in a very similar form as was conceived in a spin Hall effect.

arXiv comment7 pages, 4 figs

References in corpus (21)

• Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications
• Spin Hall effect
• Universal Intrinsic Spin-Hall Effect
• Dissipationless Quantum Spin Current at Room Temperature
• Experimental observation of the spin-Hall effect in a two dimensional spin-orbit coupled semiconductor system
• Spin current and polarization in impure 2D electron systems with spin-orbit coupling
• Suppression of the Persistent Spin Hall Current by Defect Scattering
• Theory of Spin Hall conductivity in n-doped GaAs
• Can Non-Equilibrium Spin Hall Accumulation be Induced in Ballistic Nanostructures?
• Spin-Hall effect in a disordered 2D electron-system
• Imaging mesoscopic spin Hall flow: Spatial distribution of local spin currents and spin densities in and out of multiterminal spin-orbit coupled semiconductor nanostructures
• Spin-Hall Effect in Two-Dimensional Electron Systems with Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling and Disorder
• Spin Hall Effect in Doped Semiconductor Structures
• Intrinsic Spin and Orbital-Angular-Momentum Hall Effect
• Mesoscopic Spin Hall Effect in Multiprobe Ballistic Spin-Orbit Coupled Semiconductor Bridges
• Nonexistence of intrinsic spin currents
• Sum rules for spin-Hall conductivity cancelation
• Spin-Hall effect on edge magnetization and electric conductance of a 2D semiconductor strip
• Spin Hall effect in clean two dimensional electron gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
• Influences of spin accumulation on the intrinsic spin Hall effect in two dimensional electron gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
• Effects of spin imbalance on the electric-field driven quantum dissipationless spin current in $p$-doped Semiconductors

Cited by in corpus (14)

• All-Electric Quantum Point Contact Spin Valve
• Persistent spin current in nano-devices and definition of the spin current
• Anisotropic current-induced spin accumulation in the two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit coupling
• Strongly modulated transmission of a spin-split quantum wire with local Rashba interaction
• Spin polarized current generation from quantum dots without magnetic fields
• Lateral spin-orbit interaction and spin polarization in quantum point contacts
• Filtering of spin currents based on ballistic ring
• Opposite spin accumulations on the transverse edges by the confining potential
• Enhanced spin Hall effect by tuning antidot potential: Proposal for a spin filter
• Edge-induced spin polarization in two-dimensional electron gas
• Non-equilibrium spin polarization effects in spin-orbit coupling system and contacting metallic leads
• Quenching of Spin Hall Effect in Ballistic nano-junctions
• Some symmetry properties of spin currents and spin polarizations in multi-terminal mesoscopic spin-orbit coupled systems
• The influence of anisotropic Rashba spin-orbit coupling on current-induced spin polarization in graphene