自旋轨道耦合与自旋霍尔效应

Spin orbit coupling and spin Hall effect

从巨磁阻效应正式拉开自旋电子学的序幕开始,如何控制和操纵电子的自旋自由度在学术界和工业界掀起了巨大的研究浪潮,如何产生并测量自旋流也是自旋电子学面临的重大挑战.自旋轨道耦合为自旋电子学提供了利用全电学来控制自旋的物理基础,由自旋轨道耦合引起的自旋霍尔效应则为自旋电子学提供了产生较大纯自旋流的方法.本文从1879年Edwin Hall发现的那个迷人的效应谈起,同时从自旋轨道耦合的起源来认识自旋霍尔效应,进一步探讨了如何利用其逆效应来探测自旋霍尔效应及自旋流,并简单总结了与自旋霍尔效应相关的部分新效应及新应用.

Since spintronics was formally started by giant magnetoresistance effect, how to control andmanipulate spin degree of freedom has induced a giant wave of research in both academia and industry, and howto generate and measure spin current is a huge challenge in spintronics. Fortunately, spin orbit coupling offerscertain physics basis which fully controls spin by electricity, spin Hall effect induced by spin orbit coupling cangenerate giant spin current. In the present paper, the charming effect found by Edwih Hall in 1879 isdiscussed attempts are made to understand spin Hall effect through the origin of spin orbit coupling. How tomeasure spin Hall effect itself and spin current by its inverse effect is discussed. Finally several new effects andapplications relative to spin Hall effect are briefly introduced.