Orbital Edelstein Effect as a Condensed-Matter Analog of Solenoids

2017/06/30 by Taiki Yoda, Takehito Yokoyama, Shuichi Murakami · 4 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Band gap #Condensed matter physics #Dimensionless quantity #Graphene research and applications #Magnetic anisotropy #Magnetic field #Magnetization #Orbital magnetization #Physics #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Semimetal #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Weyl semimetal #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04300

published as Nano Lett. 18, 2, 916-920 (2018) · 5 pages, 4 figures

openalex publication_date 2018/01/26 · arxiv created 2018/03/07 · arxiv updated 2018/03/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

We theoretically study current-induced orbital magnetization in a chiral crystal. This phenomenon is an orbital version of the Edelstein effect. We propose an analogy between the current-induced orbital magnetization and an Ampère field in a solenoid in classical electrodynamics. To quantify this effect, we define a dimensionless parameter from the response coefficients relating a current density with an orbital magnetization. This dimensionless parameter can be regarded as a number of turns within a unit cell when the crystal is regarded as a solenoid, and it represents how "chiral" the crystal is. By focusing on the dimensionless parameter, one can design a band structure that realizes the induction of large orbital magnetization. In particular, a Weyl semimetal with all of the Weyl nodes close to the Fermi energy can have a large value for this dimensionless parameter, which can exceed that of a classical solenoid.

Citations

• Synthetic gauge flux and Weyl points in acoustic systems
• New perspectives for Rashba spin–orbit coupling
• Valley-dependent optoelectronics from inversion symmetry breaking
• Spin polarization of conduction electrons induced by electric current in two-dimensional asymmetric electron systems
• Universal Intrinsic Spin Hall Effect
• Dissipationless Quantum Spin Current at Room Temperature
• Quantum Theory of Orbital Magnetization and its Generalization to Interacting Systems
• Orbital Magnetization in Periodic Insulators
• Berry phase effects on electronic properties

Cited by

• Harnessing Orbital-to-Spin Conversion of Interfacial Orbital Currents for Efficient Spin-Orbit Torques
• Current-induced orbital magnetization in systems without inversion symmetry
• Electrically switchable Berry curvature dipole in the monolayer topological insulator WTe2
• Predominant Electronic Order Parameter for Structural Chirality -- Role of Spinless Electronic Toroidal Multipoles