Spin Hall effect in a 2DEG in the presence of magnetic couplings

Abstract

It is now well established that the peculiar linear-in-momentum dependence of the Rashba (and of the Dresselhaus) spin-orbit coupling leads to the vanishing of the spin Hall conductivity in the bulk of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). In this paper we discuss how generic magnetic couplings change this behaviour providing then a potential handle on the spin Hall effect. In particular we examine the influence of magnetic impurities and an in-plane magnetic field. We find that in both cases there is a finite spin Hall effect and we provide explicit expressions for the spin Hall conductivity. The results can be obtained by means of the quasiclassical Green function approach, that we have recently extended to spin-orbit coupled electron systems.