Spin Hall and spin Nernst effects in a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction: Temperature dependence

Abstract

Using the Matsubara Green's function formalism we calculate the temperature dependence of spin Hall and spin Nernst conductivities of a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction in the linear response regime. In the case of the spin Nernst effect we also include the contribution from spin-resolved orbital magnetization, which assures correct behavior of the spin Nernst conductivity in the zero-temperature limit. Analytical formulas for the spin Hall and spin Nernst conductivities are derived in some specific situations. Using the Ioffe-Regel localization criterion, we have also estimated the range of parameters where the calculated results for the spin Hall and spin Nernst conductivities are applicable. Analytical results show that the vertex correction totally suppresses the spin Hall conductivity at arbitrary temperature. The spin Nernst conductivity, in turn, vanishes at $T=0$ when the orbital contribution is taken into account, but generally is nonzero at finite temperatures.