Role of Disorder in the Intrinsic Orbital Hall Effect

TL;DR

This paper explores how weak disorder and defect scattering influence the intrinsic orbital Hall effect, revealing that even minimal disorder can significantly suppress orbital Hall currents depending on orbital textures.

Contribution

It demonstrates that disorder can critically impact the orbital Hall effect, highlighting the importance of considering defect scattering in orbitronics research.

Findings

Weak disorder can suppress the orbital Hall current

Disorder effects depend on orbital textures

Intrinsic orbital Hall effect is sensitive to defect scattering

Abstract

We investigate the effect of random defect scattering on the orbital Hall effect by solving a quantum Boltzmann equation. Depending on the specific orbital textures, diffuse scattering by an \emph{arbitrarily} weak disorder can affect and even fully suppress an intrinsic orbital Hall current. From the results for a simple model, we infer that disorder can play an important role in orbitronics in general.