Spin Hall and longitudinal conductivity of a conserved spin current in two dimensional heavy-hole gases

Abstract

The spin Hall and longitudinal conductivity of a 2D heavy-hole gas with {\it k}-cubic Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction is studied in the ac frequency domain. Using Kubo linear-response theory and a recently proposed definition for the (conserved) spin current operator suitable for spin-3/2 holes, it is shown that the spin conductivity tensor exhibit very distinguishable features from those obtained with the standard definition of the spin current. This is due to a significant contribution of the spin-torque term arisen from the alternative definition of spin current which strongly affects the magnitude and the sign of the dynamic spin current. In the dc (free of disorder) limit, the spin Hall conductivity for only (or dominant) {\it k}-cubic Rashba coupling is $\sigma^{s,z}_{xy}(0)=-9e/8\pi$, whereas $\sigma^{s,z}_{xy}(0)=-3e/8\pi$ for only (or dominant) {\it k}-cubic Dresselhaus coupling. Such anisotropic response is understood in terms of the absence of mapping the {\it k}-cubic Rashba $\leftrightarrow$ Dresselhaus Hamiltonians. This asymmetry is also responsible for the non-vanishing dc spin Hall conductivity ($\sigma^{s,z}_{xy}(0)=-6e/8\pi$) when the Rashba and Dresselhaus parameters have the same strength, in contrast with its corresponding case for electrons. These results are of relevance to validate the alternative definition of spin-current through measurements in the frequency domain of the spin accumulation and/or spin currents in 2D hole gases.