English

Study of Intrinsic Spin Hall Effect and Orbital Hall Effect in 4d- and 5d- Transition Metals

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2009-11-13 v4 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

We study the intrinsic spin Hall conductivity (SHC) in various 5d5d-transition metals (Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, and Au) and 4d-transition metals (Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, and Ag) based on the Naval Research Laboratory tight-binding model, which enables us to perform quantitatively reliable analysis. In each metal, the obtained intrinsic SHC is independent of resistivity in the low resistive regime (ρ<50μΩcm\rho < 50 \mu\Omega\text{cm}) whereas it decreases in proportion to ρ2\rho^{-2} in the high resistive regime. In the low resistive regime, the SHC takes a large positive value in Pt and Pd, both of which have approximately nine dd-electrons per ion (nd=9n_d=9). On the other hand, the SHC takes a large negative value in Ta, Nb, W, and Mo where nd<5n_d<5. In transition metals, a conduction electron acquires the trajectory-dependent phase factor that originates from the atomic wavefunction. This phase factor, which is reminiscent of the Aharonov-Bohm phase, is the origin of the SHC in paramagnetic metals and that of the anomalous Hall conductivity in ferromagnetic metals. Furthermore, each transition metal shows huge and positive dd-orbital Hall conductivity (OHC), independently of the strength of the spin-orbit interaction (SOI). Since the OHC is much larger than the SHC, it will be possible to realize a {\it orbitronics device} made of transition metals.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0711.1263,
  title  = {Study of Intrinsic Spin Hall Effect and Orbital Hall Effect in 4d- and 5d- Transition Metals},
  author = {T. Tanaka and H. Kontani and M. Naito and T. Naito and D. S. Hirashima and K. Yamada and J. Inoue},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0711.1263},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

17 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, resubmitted to Physical Review B