Inverse Spin Hall Effect in Two-Terminal Device with Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling

Abstract

We report a theoretic study on the inverse spin-Hall effect (ISHE) in a two-terminal nano-device that consists of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC) and two ideal leads. Based on a two-site toy model and Keldysh Green's function method, we derive an analytic result of ISHE, which shows clearly that a nonzero transverse charge current stems from the combined effect of the RSOC, the spin bias, and its spin polarization direction in spin space. Our further numerical calculations in a larger system other than two-site lattice model demonstrate that the transverse charge current, dependent on the strength of the RSOC, the Fermi energy of the system, as well as the system size, can exhibit oscillating behavior and even reverse its sign due to Rashba spin precession. These properties may be helpful for efficient detection of the spin current (spin bias) by measuring the transverse charge current in a spin-orbital coupling system.