Quenching of Spin Hall Effect in Ballistic nano-junctions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a nanometric four-probe ballistic junction can detect transverse spin Hall currents caused by in-plane electric field-induced Spin Orbit coupling, revealing a quantum relativistic effect observable with classical mechanics insights.

Contribution

It introduces a method to observe the spin Hall effect due to in-plane electric fields in ballistic junctions, expanding understanding beyond Rashba-type coupling.

Findings

Detection of transverse spin Hall current in ballistic junctions

Identification of a quenching Hall regime influenced by junction shape

Explanation of quantum Spin Orbit effects using classical mechanics

Abstract

We show that a nanometric four-probe ballistic junction can be used to check the presence of a transverse spin Hall current in a system with a Spin Orbit coupling not of the Rashba type, but rather due to the in-plane electric field. Indeed, the spin Hall effect is due to the presence of an effective small transverse magnetic field corresponding to the Spin Orbit coupling generated by the confining potential. The strength of the field and the junction shape characterize the quenching Hall regime, usually studied by applying semi-classical approaches. We discuss how a quantum mechanical relativistic effect, such as the Spin Orbit one, can be observed in a low energy system and explained by using classical mechanics techniques.