Theory of Spin Hall conductivity in n-doped GaAs

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework for extrinsic spin Hall conductivity in n-doped GaAs, explaining experimental observations through skew scattering and side jump mechanisms caused by spin-orbit coupling at charged impurities.

Contribution

It introduces a parameter-free theory of extrinsic spin currents in semiconductors, specifically applied to n-GaAs, aligning well with recent experimental results.

Findings

Spin currents in n-GaAs are explained by skew scattering and side jump mechanisms.

The theory matches experimental measurements without adjustable parameters.

Provides insight into extrinsic spin Hall effects in semiconductors.

Abstract

We develop a theory of extrinsic spin currents in semiconductors, resulting from spin-orbit coupling at charged scatterers, which leads to skew scattering and side jump contributions to the spin Hall conductance. Applying the theory to bulk n-GaAs, without any free parameters, we find spin currents that are in reasonable agreement with recent experiments by Kato et al. [Science 306, 1910 (2004)].