Spin Hall effect can be induced both by the extrinsic impurity scattering andby the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling in the electronic structure. The HgTe/CdTequantum well has a quantum phase transition where the electronic structurechanges from normal to inverted. We show that the intrinsic spin Hall effect ofthe conduction band vanishes on the normal side, while it is finite on theinverted side. This difference gives a direct mechanism to experimentallydistinguish the intrinsic spin Hall effect from the extrinsic one.
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