Current‐induced spin polarization for a general two‐dimensional electron system

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, current‐induced spin polarization (CISP) for a two‐dimensional electron gas with a general spin–orbit interaction is investigated. For an isotropic energy spectrum, the in‐plane CISP is found to be dependent on the electron density for a non‐linear spin–orbit interaction and increases with the increment of sheet density, in contrast to the case for the k‐linear spin–orbit coupling model. The numerical evaluation is performed for an InAs/InSb heterojunction with spin–orbit coupling of both linear and cubic spin–orbit coupling types. For δ‐type short‐range electron‐impurity scattering, it is found that the CISP increases with increasing density when cubic spin–orbit couplings are considered. However, for remote disorders, a rapid enhancement of CISP is always observed at high electron density, even in the case without cubic spin–orbit coupling. This result demonstrates the collision‐related feature of CISP. The effects of different high‐order spin–orbit couplings on spin polarization can be comparable.