Robust to impurity-scattering spin Hall effect in two-dimensional electron gas

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in a two-dimensional electron gas with spatially random Rashba spin-orbit interaction, the spin Hall effect persists despite impurity scattering, revealing a non-universal intrinsic spin-Hall effect.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism showing the robustness of the spin Hall effect in disordered systems with random spin-orbit coupling, contrasting with previous models assuming constant coupling.

Findings

Spin Hall conductivity persists despite impurity scattering.

Random Rashba spin-orbit interaction sustains intrinsic spin-Hall effect.

The effect is non-universal and not fully suppressed by potential impurities.

Abstract

We propose a mechanism of spin Hall effect in two-dimensional electron gas with spatially random Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The calculations based on the Kubo formalism and kinetic equation show that in contrast to the constant spin-orbit coupling, spin Hall conductivity in the random spin-orbit field is not totally suppressed by the potential impurity scattering. Even if the regular contribution is removed by the vertex corrections, the terms we consider, remain. Therefore, the intrinsic spin-Hall effect exists being, however, non-universal.