Spin Hall effect and spin transfer in a disordered Rashba model

Abstract

Based on numerical study of the Rashba model, we show that the spin Hall conductance remains finite in the presence of disorder up to a characteristic length scale, beyond which it vanishes exponentially with the system size. We further perform a Laughlin's gauge experiment numerically and find that all energy levels cannot cross each other during an adiabatic insertion of the flux in accordance with the general level-repulsion rule. It results in zero spin transfer between two edges of the sample as each state always evolves back after the insertion of one flux quantum, in contrast to the quantum Hall effect. It implies that the topological spin Hall effect vanishes with the turn-on of disorder.