Spin-current generation from local spin polarization induced by current through local inversion asymmetry: Double quantum well structure

Abstract

The current-induced spin polarization (CISP) in a system without the inversion symmetry is known to efficiently generate the spin current. In this paper we propose another approach, generating the spin current from the CISP locally arising in a system with the inversion symmetry in the form of the antiparallel CISP in sublattice structure. In this approach the local CISP is extracted from one of sublattices by a selective contact between the sublattice and an electrode. As the simplest system with such antiparallel CISP, we consider a symmetric double-quantum-well structure (DQWS) and calculate the antiparallel CISP and the spin current to a metallic layer in parallel contact with one well of the DQWS using the Boltzmann equation in the relaxation time approximation. When the Fermi energy is large enough that the first-excited sub-band is occupied, the magnitude of the spin current, which is proportional to that of the antiparallel CISP, increases with the interwell tunnel coupling and reaches twice the value of the decoupled quantum well with the broken inversion symmetry. Such an estimate suggests that inversion-symmetric systems can be useful in generating the spin current if the inversion symmetry is locally broken.