Influences of spin accumulation on the intrinsic spin Hall effect in two dimensional electron gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

摘要

In a two dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, theexternal electric field may cause a spin Hall current in the directionperpendicular to the electric field. This effect was called the intrinsic spinHall effect. In this paper, we investigate the influences of spin accumulationon this intrinsic spin Hall effect. We show that due to the existence ofboundaries in a real sample, the spin Hall current generated by the intrinsicspin Hall effect will cause spin accumulation near the edges of the sample, andin the presence of spin accumulation, the spin Hall conductivity will not havea universal value. The influences of spin accumulation on the intrinsic spinHall effect in narrow strips of two dimensional electron gases with Rashbaspin-orbit coupling are investigated in detail.