Spin Hall Effect in Atoms

TL;DR

This paper proposes an optical method to induce a spin Hall effect in neutral atoms by coupling their internal spins to radiation, creating effective magnetic fields and topological spin currents.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical approach to realize the spin Hall effect in atomic systems, with potential for controlling spin currents without charge movement.

Findings

Effective magnetic fields induce Landau levels for atomic spins

Topological properties of spin currents are analyzed

Pure spin currents can be generated in neutral atoms

Abstract

We propose an optical means to realize a spin hall effect (SHE) in neutral atomic system by coupling the internal spin states of atoms to radiation. The interaction between the external optical fields and the atoms creates effective magnetic fields that act in opposite directions on "electrically" neutral atoms with opposite spin polarizations. This effect leads to a Landau level structure for each spin orientation in direct analogy with the familiar SHE in semiconductors. The conservation and topological properties of the spin current, and the creation of a pure spin current are discussed.