Proper Definition of Spin Current in Spin-Orbit Coupled Systems

2005/03/31 by Junren Shi, Ping Zhang, Di Xiao +1 · 8 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Magnetic properties of thin films #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.076604

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 076604 (2006) · Final version with updated journal-ref

openalex publication_date 2006/02/24 · arxiv created 2006/02/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The conventional definition of spin current is incomplete and unphysical in describing spin transport in systems with spin-orbit coupling. A proper and measurable spin current is established in this study, which fits well into the standard framework of near-equilibrium transport theory and has the desirable property to vanish in insulators with localized orbitals. Experimental implications of our theory are discussed.

Citations

• Observation of the Spin Hall Effect in Semiconductors
• Spin-Hall transport of heavy holes in III-V semiconductor quantum wells
• Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications
• Dissipationless Quantum Spin Current at Room Temperature

Cited by

• Spin Hall effect of a conserved current: Conditions for a nonzero spin Hall current
• Understanding spin transport from motion inSU(2)×U(1)fields
• Drift and diffusion of spins generated by the spin Hall effect
• Electric-field-induced long-lived spin excitations in two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled systems
• Quenching of the spin Hall effect in ballistic nanojunctions
• Spin accumulation and spin-coherent excitations in a strongly confined two-dimensional hole gas
• Quantum transport in noncentrosymmetric superconductors and thermodynamics of ferromagnetic superconductors
• SPIN TRANSVERSE FORCE AND QUANTUM TRANSVERSE TRANSPORT