Converting Non-Equilibrium Charge Density into Spin Current
Marc VilaJoel E. Moore
Marc VilaJoel E. Moore
Nov 2023
0被引用
0笔记
摘要原文
The interconversion between charge and spin degrees of freedom is of both fundamental and technological relevance in spintronics. While a non-equilibrium spin density and a charge current are related by the well known Rashba-Edelstein effect, here we theoretically model the generation of a time-dependent spin current due to a periodic modulation of the charge density, for example by a gate. By using the Boltzmann transport equation, we show that when the chemical potential is varied, a spin current is generated in the time scale it takes for the system to re-equilibrate in the new chemical potential. The effect is ubiquitous in many systems with spin-momentum locking; we compute the strength of the effect in four examples and propose a simple device scheme to measure the spin accumulation resulting from such time-dependent spin currents. Our findings test fundamental theoretical questions about charge-to-spin conversion mechanisms and provide an all-electrical way to generate spin currents without the need for charge currents, magnetic materials or optical methods.
