English

On A Proper Definition of Spin Current

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2007-05-23 v5

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.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0503505,
  title  = {On A Proper Definition of Spin Current},
  author = {Junren Shi and Ping Zhang and Di Xiao and Qian Niu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0503505},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

Final version with updated journal-ref

R2 v1 2026-07-22T11:15:04.715Z