Enhanced and stable spin Hall conductivity in a disordered time-reversal and inversion symmetry broken topological insulator thin film

Abstract

We consider a disordered topological insulator thin film placed on the top of a ferromagnetic insulator with a perpendicular exchange field M and subjected to a perpendicular electric field. The presence of ferromagnetic insulator causes that bottom surface states of the topological insulator thin film become spin polarized and the electric field provides a potential difference V between the two surface states, resulting in breaking of time-reversal and inversion symmetry in the system. Using Kubo formalism and employing the first Born approximation as well as the self-consistent Born approximation, we calculate the spin Hall conductivity. We find that for small values of V, a large spin conductivity can be generated through large values of M away from the charge neutrality point. But for large values of V, the spin conductivity can be promoted even with small values of M around the charge neutrality point. The effect of vertex corrections and the stability of the obtained large spin conductivity against disorders are also examined.