Intrinsic spin hall effect in platinum: First-principles calculations
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
100
Journal Issue
9
Date Issued
2008
Author(s)
Abstract
Spin Hall effect (SHE) is studied with first-principles relativistic band calculations for platinum, which is one of the most important materials for metallic SHE and spintronics. We find that intrinsic spin Hall conductivity (SHC) is as large as approximately 2000(variant Planck's over 2 pi/e)(Omega cm)(-1) at low temperature and decreases down to approximately 200(variant Planck's over 2 pi/e)(Omega cm)(-1) at room temperature. It is due to the resonant contribution from the spin-orbit splitting of the doubly degenerated d bands at high-symmetry L and X points near the Fermi level. By modeling these near degeneracies by an effective Hamiltonian, we show that SHC has a peak near the Fermi energy and that the vertex correction due to impurity scattering vanishes. We therefore argue that the large SHE observed experimentally in platinum is of intrinsic nature.
Type
journal article