Temperature dependence of the intrinsic spin Hall effect in Rashba spin-orbit coupled systems

Zhou Li; Zhongshui Ma; Chao Zhang

doi:doi:10.1209/0295-5075/82/67003

EPL, 82 (2008) 67003
DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/82/67003

Temperature dependence of the intrinsic spin Hall effect in Rashba spin-orbit coupled systems

Zhou Li¹, Zhongshui Ma¹ and Chao Zhang²

¹ School of Physics, Peking University - Beijing 100871, China
² School of Engineering Physics, University of Wollongong - New South Wales 2552, Australia

czhang@uow.edu.au

received 26 February 2008; accepted in final form 29 April 2008; published June 2008
published online 3 June 2008

Abstract
We investigate the temperature dependence of the intrinsic charge and spin transport in two-dimensional semiconductors with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. For 2 $\alpha$ k_F⁰-2m $\alpha$ ²/ $\hbar$ ² < $\hbar$ $\omega$ < 2 $\alpha$ k_F⁰+2m $\alpha$ ²/ $\hbar$ ² (where $\alpha$ is the Rashba spin-orbit coupling parameter), the real part of the optical conductivity ( $\sigma$ ^R( $\omega$ )) and the imaginary part of the spin Hall conductivity ( $\sigma$ ^I_sH( $\omega$ )) decrease with temperature monotonically. Outside this frequency range, $\sigma$ ^R( $\omega$ ) and $\sigma$ ^I_sH( $\omega$ ) exhibit resonant behavior. At high frequencies, $\sigma$ ^R_sH( $\omega$ ) changes sign at a characteristic temperature T₁. Our result suggests that the sign and magnitude of $\sigma$ ^R_sH( $\omega$ ) can be tuned by changing the temperature.

PACS
71.10.Ca - Electron gas, Fermi gas.
72.25.-b - Spin polarized transport.
73.23.-b - Electronic transport in mesoscopic systems.

© EPLA 2008