Giant Orbital Hall Effect in Transition Metals: Origin of Large Spin and Anomalous Hall Effects

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that large spin and anomalous Hall effects in transition metals originate from a giant orbital Hall effect caused by orbital Aharonov-Bohm phase, explained through a simple hybridization model.

Contribution

It introduces a simple hybridization model to explain the origin of large orbital, spin, and anomalous Hall effects in transition metals, highlighting the role of orbital Aharonov-Bohm phase.

Findings

Giant positive orbital Hall effect in transition metals.

Spin Hall conductivity linked to spin-orbit polarization.

Hall effects depend on electron filling levels.

Abstract

In transition metals and their compounds, the orbital degrees of freedom gives rise to an orbital current, in addition to the ordinary spin and charge currents. We reveal that considerably large spin and anomalous Hall effects (SHE and AHE) observed in transition metals originate from an orbital Hall effect (OHE). To elucidate the origin of these novel Hall effects, a simple periodic s-d hybridization model is proposed as a generic model. The giant positive OHE originates from the orbital Aharonov-Bohm phase factor, and induces spin Hall conductivity that is proportional to the spin-orbit polarization at the Fermi level, which is positive (negative) in metals with more than (less than) half-filling.