Equilibrium spin current through the tunnelling junctions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the generation of equilibrium pure spin currents in tunnelling junctions involving ferromagnetic metals and 2D electron gases with spin-orbit interactions, revealing conditions under which spin currents flow due to exchange coupling.

Contribution

It demonstrates that equilibrium spin currents can flow in various junctions due to exchange coupling, highlighting the role of spin-orbit interactions and magnetic configurations, with distinctions between ferromagnetic and 2DEG leads.

Findings

Equilibrium spin current flows in 2DEG/2DEG, 2DEG/FM, and FM/FM junctions.

Spin current depends on the cross product of magnetic moments in the electrodes.

In 1D cases, RSOI and DSOI do not produce spin current without spin polarization.

Abstract

We study equilibrium pure spin current through tunnelling junctions at zero bias. The two leads of the junctions connected via a thin insulator barrier, can be either a ferromagnetic metal (FM) or a nonmagnetic high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) with Rashba spin orbital interaction (RSOI) or Dresselhaus spin orbital interaction (DSOI). As a lead of a tunnelling junction, the isotropic RSOI or DSOI in 2DEG can give rise to an average effective planar magnetic field orthogonal or parallel to the current direction. It is found by the linear response theory that equilibrium spin current $\vec{J}$ can flow in the following three junctions, 2DEG/2DEG, 2DEG/FM, and FM/FM junctions, as a result of the exchange coupling between the magnetic moments, $\vec{h}_{l}$ and $\vec{h}_{r}$, in the two electrodes of the junction, i.e., $\vec{J}\sim\vec{h}_{l}\times\vec{h}_{r}$. An important distinction between the FM and 2DEG with RSOI (DSOI) lead is that in a strict one-dimensional case RSOI (DSOI) cannot lead to equilibrium spin current in the junction since the two spin bands are not spin-polarized as in a FM lead where Zeeman spin splitting occurs.