Spin current and polarization in impure 2D electron systems with spin-orbit coupling

Mishchenko, E. G.; Shytov, A. V.; Halperin, B. I.

Spin current and polarization in impure 2D electron systems with spin-orbit coupling

Authors

Mishchenko, E. G.

Shytov, A. V.

Halperin, B. I.

Description

We derive the transport equations for two-dimensional electron systems with spin-orbit interaction and short-range spin-independent disorder. In the limit of slow spatial variations of the electron distribution we obtain coupled diffusion equations for the electron density and spin. Using these equations we calculate electric-field induced spin accumulation in a finite-size sample for arbitrary ratio between spin-orbit energy splitting and elastic scattering rate. We demonstrate that the spin-Hall conductivity vanishes in an infinite system independent of this ratio.
5 pages, 1 figure; revised version according to referee's commments