Intrinsic Spin Hall Edges

Abstract

The prediction of intrinsic spin Hall currents by Murakami \textit{et al.} and Sinova \textit{et al.} raised many questions about methods of detection and the effect of disorder. We focus on a contact between a Rashba type spin orbit coupled region with a normal two-dimensional electron gas and show that the spin Hall currents, though vanishing in the bulk of the sample, can be recovered from the edges. We also show that the current induced spin accumulation in the spin orbit coupled system diffuses into the normal region and contributes to the spin current in the leads.Comment: To appear in Physical Review Letters. 5 pages, 2 figures, RevTe