12,975 research outputs found
Shape transformations in rotating ferrofluid drops
Floating drops of magnetic fluid can be brought into rotation by applying a
rotating magnetic field. We report theoretical and experimental results on the
transition from a spheroid equilibrium shape to non-axissymmetrical three-axes
ellipsoids at certain values of the external field strength. The transitions
are continuous for small values of the magnetic susceptibility and show
hysteresis for larger ones. In the non-axissymmetric shape the rotational
motion of the drop consists of a vortical flow inside the drop combined with a
slow rotation of the shape. Nonlinear magnetization laws are crucial to obtain
quantitative agreement between theory and experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Equilibrium spin currents: Non-Abelian gauge invariance and color diamagnetism in condensed matter
The spin-orbit (SO) interaction in condensed matter can be described in terms
of a non-Abelian potential known in high-energy physics as a color field. I
show that a magnetic component of this color field inevitably generates
diamagnetic color currents which are just the equilibrium spin currents
discussed in a condensed matter context. These dissipationless spin currents
thus represent a universal property of systems with SO interaction. In
semiconductors with linear SO coupling the spin currents are related to the
effective non-Abelian field via Yang-Mills magnetostatics equation.Comment: RevTeX, 4 page
Fingering Instability in a Water-Sand Mixture
The temporal evolution of a water-sand interface driven by gravity is
experimentally investigated. By means of a Fourier analysis of the evolving
interface the growth rates are determined for the different modes appearing in
the developing front. To model the observed behavior we apply the idea of the
Rayleigh-Taylor instability for two stratified fluids. Carrying out a linear
stability analysis we calculate the growth rates from the corresponding
dispersion relations for finite and infinite cell sizes. Based on the
theoretical results the viscosity of the suspension is estimated to be
approximately 100 times higher than that of pure water, in agreement with other
experimental findings.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, RevTeX; final versio
Spin generation away from boundaries by nonlinear transport
In several situations of interest, spin polarization may be generated far
from the boundaries of a sample by nonlinear effects of an electric current,
even when such a generation is forbidden by symmetry in the linear regime. We
present an analytically solvable model where spin accumulation results from a
combination of current gradients, nonlinearity, and cubic anisotropy. Further,
we show that even with isotropic conductivity, nonlinear effects in a low
symmetry geometry can generate spin polarization far away from boundaries.
Finally, we find that drift from the boundaries results in spin polarization
patterns that dominate in recent experiments on GaAs by Sih et al. [Phys. Rev.
Lett. 97, 096605 (2006)]
Spin Hall effect in a system of Dirac fermions in the honeycomb lattice with intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit interaction
We consider spin Hall effect in a system of massless Dirac fermions in a
graphene lattice. Two types of spin-orbit interaction, pertinent to the
graphene lattice, are taken into account - the intrinsic and Rashba terms.
Assuming perfect crystal lattice, we calculate the topological contribution to
spin Hall conductivity. When both interactions are present, their interplay is
shown to lead to some peculiarities in the dependence of spin Hall conductivity
on the Fermi level.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Edge spin accumulation: spin Hall effect without bulk spin current
Spin accumulation in a 2D electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction
subject to an electric field can take place without bulk spin currents (edge
spin Hall effect). This is demonstrated for the collisional regime using the
non-equilibrium distribution function determined from the standard Boltzmann
equation. Spin accumulation originates from interference of incident and
reflected electron waves at the sample boundary.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Magnification of spin Hall effect in bilayer electron gas
Spin transport properties of a coupled bilayer electron gas with Rashba
spin-orbit coupling are studied. The definition of the spin currents in each
layer as well as the corresponding continuity-like equations in the bilayer
system are given. The curves of the spin Hall conductivities obtained in each
layer exhibit sharp cusps around a particular value of the tunnelling strength
and the conductivities undergo sign changes across this point. Our
investigation on the impurity effect manifests that an arbitrarily small
concentration of nonmagnetic impurities does not suppress the spin Hall
conductivity to zero in the bilayer system. Based on these features, an
experimental scheme is suggested to detect a magnification of the spin Hall
effect.Comment: Revtex 10 pages, 4 figures; largely extended versio
Theory of Spin Hall conductivity in n-doped GaAs
We develop a theory of extrinsic spin currents in semiconductors, resulting
from spin-orbit coupling at charged scatterers, which leads to skew scattering
and side jump contributions to the spin Hall conductance. Applying the theory
to bulk n-GaAs, without any free parameters, we find spin currents that are in
reasonable agreement with recent experiments by Kato et al. [Science 306, 1910
(2004)].Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur
Localization problem of the quasiperiodic system with the spin orbit interaction
We study one dimensional quasiperiodic system obtained from the tight-binding
model on the square lattice in a uniform magnetic field with the spin orbit
interaction. The phase diagram with respect to the Harper coupling and the
Rashba coupling are proposed from a number of numerical studies including a
multifractal analysis. There are four phases, I, II, III, and IV in this order
from weak to strong Harper coupling. In the weak coupling phase I all the wave
functions are extended, in the intermediate coupling phases II and III mobility
edges exist, and accordingly both localized and extended wave functions exist,
and in the strong Harper coupling phase IV all the wave functions are
localized. Phase I and Phase IV are related by the duality, and phases II and
III are related by the duality, as well. A localized wave function is related
to an extended wave function by the duality, and vice versa. The boundary
between phases II and III is the self-dual line on which all the wave functions
are critical. In the present model the duality does not lead to pure spectra in
contrast to the case of Harper equation.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure
Scattering Theory of Current-Induced Spin Polarization
We construct a novel scattering theory to investigate magnetoelectrically
induced spin polarizations. Local spin polarizations generated by electric
currents passing through a spin-orbit coupled mesoscopic system are measured by
an external probe. The electrochemical and spin-dependent chemical potentials
on the probe are controllable and tuned to values ensuring that neither charge
nor spin current flow between the system and the probe, on time-average. For
the relevant case of a single-channel probe, we find that the resulting
potentials are exactly independent of the transparency of the contact between
the probe and the system. Assuming that spin relaxation processes are absent in
the probe, we therefore identify the local spin-dependent potentials in the
sample at the probe position, and hence the local current-induced spin
polarization, with the spin-dependent potentials in the probe itself. The
statistics of these local chemical potentials is calculated within random
matrix theory. While they vanish on spatial and mesoscopic average, they
exhibit large fluctuations, and we show that single systems typically have spin
polarizations exceeding all known current-induced spin polarizations by a
parametrically large factor. Our theory allows to calculate quantum
correlations between spin polarizations inside the sample and spin currents
flowing out of it. We show that these large polarizations correlate only weakly
with spin currents in external leads, and that only a fraction of them can be
converted into a spin current in the linear regime of transport, which is
consistent with the mesoscopic universality of spin conductance fluctuations.
We numerically confirm the theory.Comment: Final version; a tunnel barrier between the probe and the dot is
considered. To appear in 'Nanotechnology' in the special issue on "Quantum
Science and Technology at the Nanoscale
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