Driving a pure spin current from nuclear-polarization gradients
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2022-09-14 v1
Abstract
A pure spin current is predicted to occur when an external magnetic field and a linearly inhomogeneous spin-only field are appropriately aligned. Under these conditions (such as originate from nuclear contact hyperfine fields that do not affect orbital motion) a linear, spin-dependent dispersion for free electrons emerges from the Landau Hamiltonian. The result is that spins of opposite orientation flow in opposite directions giving rise to a pure spin current. A classical model of the spin and charge dynamics reveals intuitive aspects of the full quantum mechanical solution. We propose optical orientation or electrical polarization experiments to demonstrate this outcome.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2208.03414,
title = {Driving a pure spin current from nuclear-polarization gradients},
author = {Nicholas J. Harmon and Michael E. Flatté},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.03414},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
5 pages, 3 figures. Accepted in Phys. Rev. B