Boltzmann approach to the spin Hall effect revisited and electric field modified collision integrals

TL;DR

This paper revisits the intrinsic spin Hall effect in a 2DEG using a quantum Boltzmann approach, revealing that certain precession terms must be omitted at first order in spin-orbit coupling, which impacts the understanding of intrinsic contributions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the precession term should be omitted at first order in spin-orbit coupling for perturbative responses, altering previous Boltzmann-based analyses of the spin Hall effect.

Findings

Precession term must be omitted at first order in spin-orbit coupling.

Electric field induced corrections are second order in spin-orbit coupling.

Relaxation time approximation of the collision integral fails.

Abstract

The intrinsic contribution to the spin Hall effect in a 2DEG with non-magnetic impurities is studied in a quantum Boltzmann approach. It is shown that if the steady state response is perturbative in the spin-orbit coupling parameter $\lambda$, then the precession term--vital for Dyakonov-Perel relaxation and the key to the spin Hall effect in previous similar Boltzmann studies--must be left out to first order in spin-orbit coupling. In such a case one would have that to lowest order in the parameters electric field, spin-orbit coupling, impurity strength and impurity concentration there is no intrinsic contribution to the spin Hall effect, not only for a Rashba coupling but for a general spin-orbit coupling. To cover all possible lowest order terms we consider also electric field induced corrections to the collision integral in the Keldysh formalism. However, these corrections turn out to be of second order in $\lambda$. For comparison we derive some familiar results in the case when the response is not assumed to be perturbative in $\lambda$. We also include a detailed discussion of why a relaxation time approximation of the collision integral fails. Finally we make a comment on pseudospin currents in bilayer graphene.