Dissipationless quantum spin current

at room temperature

Shoucheng Zhang (Stanford University)

Collaborators:
Shuichi Murakami, Naoto Nagaosa
(University of Tokyo)

Science 301, 1348 (2003)

Tsinghua Spring School 2004/04

Can Moore’s law keep
going?
Power dissipation=greatest obstacle for Moore’s law!
Modern processor chips consume ~100W of power of which
about 20% is wasted in leakage through the transistor
gates.
The traditional means of coping with increased power per
generation has been to scale down the operating voltage of
the chip500
but voltages are reaching limits due to thermal
500
fluctuation effects.
2

400 Passive Power (Device Leakage)

400

300
300

200
200 Active Power

100
100
m(W
/c
) n
ity
sw
P
rd
e
o

00
500
0.5 350
0.35 250
0.25 180 130 100
0.18 0.13 0.1 70 0.05
0.07 50
Technology node (nm)
Spintronics
• The electron has both charge and spin.
• Electronic logic devices today only used the charge property
of the electron.
• Energy scale for the charge interaction is high, of the order
of eV, while the energy scale for the spin interaction is low,
of the order of 10-100 meV.
• Spin-based electronic promises a radical alternative, namely
the possibility of logic operations with much lower power
consumption than equivalent charge based logic operations.
• Spin-based electronics also promises a greater integration
between the logic and storage devices
Spintronic devices

Devices Applications
• Spin valve • Read heads in magnetic
• Magnetic tunneling junction recording
• Datta-Das current • Nonvolatile memory
modulator etc. • Nonvolatile reprogrammable
logic
etc.

Spin valve Magnetic tunneling junction

Conductance changes depending on the magnetization direction.

Spintronic devices with semiconductors

• spin injection into semiconductor

• Ohmic injection from ferromagnet Low efficiency
(Difficulty):
• Ferromagnetic metal :
conductivity mismatch
 spin polarization is almost lost at interface.
• Ferromagnetic semiconductor (e.g. Ga1-x MnxAs) :
Curie temperature much lower than room temp.
• Ferromagnetic tunnel junction.

• spin detection by ferromagnet

• spin transport in semiconductor
spin relaxation time
• Optical pump and probe
Quantum Hall effect in higher D?

J j = σ H ε jk Ek

Spin current generated by the electric field

through the spin-orbit interaction

J j = σ spinε ijk Ek
i

• Since the spin is a vector, the spin current is a tensor.

An electric field along the z direction can induce a spin
current flowing along the x direction, where the spins
are polarized along the y direction.
• Murakami, Nagaosa and Zhang, Science, valence band
• Sinova et al, cond-mat, conducting band
Dissipationless spin current induced by the electric
field
Time reversal symmetry and dissipative
transport
• Microscopic laws physics are T invariant.
• Almost all transport processes in solids break T
invariance due to dissipative coupling to the
environment.
• Damped harmonic oscillator:
mx − ηx + kx = 0
•Electric field=even under T, charge current=odd under T.
•Ohmic conductivity is dissipative!

e2
J j = σE j , σ ∝ k F (k F l )
h
• Only states close to the fermi energy contribute to the
dissipative transport processes.
Only two known examples of dissipationless
transport in solids!
• Supercurrent in a superconductor is dissipationless,
since London equation related J to A, not to E!
• Vector potential=odd under T, charge current=odd
under T. ∂A
−1 j
J j = ρ S Aj , E j =
c ∂t
• In the QHE, the Hall conductivity is proportional to the
magnetic field B, which is odd under T.
• Laughlin argument: all states below the fermi energy
contribute to the Hall conductance.
• Streda formula, TKNN formula relates the Hall
conductance to the 1st Chern number.

J µ = σ H ε µ νEν , σ H ∝ B
Dissipationless transport at room
temperature?
• Room temperature superconductivity?
• QHE at room temperature would require a very high
magnetic field!
• The achieve dissipationless quantum transport at room
temperature is the main objective of condensed matter
physics!
• Spin current=even under T.
• spin transport can be non-dissipative!

J j = σ spinε ijk Ek , σ spin ∝ ek F

i

• It works because of spin-orbit coupling, which can be

large even at room temperature.
• In fact, the spin conductivity is entirely topological, can
be expressed as the integral of a gauge curvature in
momentum space.
• Similar to Streda, or TKNN formula in QHE.
Valence band of Si
Valence band of Ge
Valence band of GaAs
 Valence band of GaAs
p-orbit (x,y,z)× spin ↑,↓= 6 states
+ spin-orbit coupling
split-off band (SO)
heavy-hole band (HH) doubly degenerate
light-hole band (LH) (Kramers)

Luttinger Hamiltonian
( )
1  5  2   2
H=  γ 1 + γ 2 k − 2γ 2 k ⋅ S 
2m  2  

( :Sspin-3/2 matrix, describing the P3/2 band)

 0 3i / 2 0 0   0 3/2 0 0   3/ 2 0 0 0 
     
− 3i / 2 0 i 0   3/2 0 1 0   0 1/ 2 0 0 
Sx =  S =
 y   Sz =  0
 0 −i 0 3i / 2   0 1 0 3 / 2 0 − 1/ 2 0 
 
  0 0 0 − 3 / 2 
 0 0 − 3i / 2 0   0
 0 3/2 0  
 Unitary transformation
( )
1  5  2   2 
H=  γ + γ  k − 2γ k ⋅ S + V ( x )
2m  
1 2 2
2  

Diagonalize the first term with a local unitary transformation

  +  U (kˆ)
iθ S
U ( k ) k ⋅ SU ( k ) = kS z , U ( k ) = e y e iϕ S z

 U (kˆ' )
Helicity basis λ = kˆ ⋅ S

  1  5  2 2
  + 
H ′ = U (k ) HU + (k ) = γ
 1 + γ 2 k − 2γ k 2
S + U ( k )V ( x )U (k )
2m 
2 z 
2  
 +
 
U (k )V (i∂ k )U (k ) = V ( D )
 γ 1 − 2γ 2  λ = 32 : HH
  ∂
k2  γ 1 + 2γ 2  λ = 2 : LH
1
Di = i − Ai
2m  γ 1 + 2γ 2  λ = − 1 : LH ∂ki
  2
 ∂ + 
 
γ 1 − 2γ 2  λ = − 32 : HH
 Ai = −iU (k ) U (k ): gauge field in k!
∂ki
 Local gauge field in k space
Adiabatic transport = potential V does not cause inter-band transitions
 only retain the intra-band matrix elements

 − 32 cosθdϕ 3
(sin θdϕ + idθ )  λ = 32 : HH
 2 
 2 (sin θdϕ − idθ )
3
− 12 cosθdϕ sin θdϕ + idθ  λ = 12 : LH
Ai dki =   λ = − 1 : LH
 sin θdϕ − idθ 2 cos θdϕ
1
2 (sin θdϕ + idθ ) 
3
2
 
2 (sin θdϕ − idθ ) 2 cos θdϕ  λ = − 2 : HH
3 3 3


Abelian approximation = retain only the intra-helicity matrix elements

 − 32 cosθ dϕ 3
(sinθ dϕ + idθ )  λ = 32 : HH
 2 
 3
(sinθ dϕ − idθ ) − 12 cosθ dϕ sinθ dϕ + idθ  λ = 12 : LH
Ai dki =  2
 λ=−1
 sinθ dϕ − idθ 2 cosθ dϕ
1
2
3
(sin θ dϕ + idθ )  2 : LH
 (sinθ dϕ − idθ )  λ = − 3 : HH
2 cosθ dϕ
3 3
 2  2
Effective Hamiltonian for adiabatic transport

k2  ∂ ~ 
H eff
= + V (x) xi ≡ Di = i − Ai (k )
2mλ ∂ki

Nontrivial spin dynamics comes from the (Dirac monopole)

Dirac monopole at the center of k space, with kk
Fij = ε ijk λ
eg=λ : k3

[ki , k j ] = 0, [ xi , k j ] = iδ ij , [ xi , x j ] = −iFij

ki λ
Eq. of ki = −Ei , x i = − 3 εijk E j k k
motion mλ k

∂E eE j
Drift velocity = Topological term= − Fij
∂ki 
 Non-commutative
geometry
Heisenberg uncertainty principle: [ xi , p j ] = iδ ij ⇒ x = ∂H , p = − ∂H
Non-commutativity in phase space ∂p ∂x

2D QHE: ∂V ∂V
H = V ( x, y ) , [ x, y ] = il ⇒ x =
2
, y = −
∂y ∂x

3D spin current: kk  kk
[ xi , x j ] = −iλ εijk 3 ⇒ x i = −λ εijk k j 3
Non-commutativity in k k
momentum space

Real space monpole: xk xk

[ pi , p j ] = −iλ εijk ⇒ p
 i = λ ε x

ijk j
x3 x3
Real-space trajectory within Abelian
approximation ki λ

// k
Eq. of motion: ki = − Ei , x i = − 3
ε ijk E j k k
mλ k
It can be integrated:

k (t ) = ( k x 0 , k y 0 , k z 0 − E z t ) , Hole spin
z (t ) = z0 +
kz0 E
t − z t2, λ<0
mλ 2mλ
k λk y 0 Ezt − k z 0
y
x(t ) = x0 + x 0 t + 2 ,
mλ k x 0 + k y20 k x20 + k y20 + ( E z t − k z 0 )
2 λ >0
x
k y0λk Ezt − k z 0
y (t ) = x0 + t − 2 x0 2 
mλ k x0 + k y 0 k x20 + k y20 + ( E z t − k z 0 )
2
E // z
( )
 
Side jump (⊥ k // S )

S = λkˆ
Spin motion can be known from orbital motion since .
Spin current (spin//y, velocity//x)
1  E kH
j = ∑ x S y n (k ) = z 2F ,
H
xy
λ

3 λ = ± 32 ,k 4π 
1  E z k FL
j = ∑ x S y n (k ) =
L
xy
λ
,
3 λ = ± 12 ,k 36π 2 
Real-Space trajectory for the HH band
 
: λ >0 ( kand S: parallel)
Spin direction  
: λ<0 ( kand S: antiparallel)

3D motion projection onto xy plane  

: side-jump perpendicular to
S and
E


z // E


z // E
Conservation of total angular momentum

Total angular momentum:

    
J = x ×k + S , [ H 0 , J ] = 0 , [ H , J z ] = 0

In the presence of the E field, Jz is conserved.

• •  •
 •
 
J z = ( x× k ) z + ( x × k ) z + λ kˆ = 0

The total angular momentum conservation directly leads to the spin

current.
1  Ek H
j = ∑ x S y n (k ) = z 2F ,
H
xy
λ

3 λ = ± 32 ,k 4π 
1  E k L
j xyL = ∑ x S y n λ (k ) = z 2F ,
3 λ = ± 12 ,k 36π 
Luttinger model
Expressed in terms of the Dirac Gamma matrices.
Full quantum calculation of the spin current based on
Kubo formula
Definition of the conserved spin current in the presence of the spin orbit
coupling:

Final result for the spin conductivity: (Similar to the TKNN formula for the
QHE. Note also that it vanishes in the limit of vanishing spin-orbit
coupling).
ji = σ ijk Ek
j

4
σ ijk = ∑ [nL (k ) − nH (k )]Gij (k )
k

V k

=
6π
e
(
2
k H
F − k)F ε ijk
L
Non-abelian gauge field in k space

Gauge field in the 3D k space is induced from the SU(2) gauge field in
the 5D d space.
Dissipationless spin current induced by the electric
field
 y

Spin current induced by an electric field z

x: current direction
eE
( )
j xy = z2 k FH − k FL ≡ σ s E z
6π
y: spin direction
x
z: electric field

E
Direct Kubo formula calculation yields
essentially the same result. GaAs

SU(2) analog of the QHE

• topological origin
• dissipationless
• All occupied states in the
valence band contribute.

External electric field does not break time-reversal

symmetry.
Spin current is allowed in this system with time-reversal
symmetry
Application in spintronics : Effective source of spin currents

At present, efficiency of spin injection is still very low.

Electric-field-induced spin currents can overcome this difficulty!

Example:
Depending on the direction of
magnetization of the
ferromagnet, the voltage drop
will change.
p-GaAsFerro.

V
Order of magnitude estimate (at room temperature
carrier mobility Charge Spin (Hall)
density conductivity conductivity

n (cm −3 ) µ (cm 2 /Vs) σ (Ω −1cm -1 ) σ s (Ω −1cm -1 )

1019 50 80 73

1018 150 24 34

1017 350 5.6 16

1016 400 0.64 7.3

σ = enµ
σ S ∝ k F ∝ n1/ 3

As the hole density decreases, bothσ andσ S decrease.

σ
decreases faster than σ S .
Rapid relaxation of hole spins
Spin relaxation time at RT:

hole : τ s ≈ 100f sec ≈ momentum relaxation

electron: τ s ≈ 100p sec

• Because of strong spin-orbit coupling in the

valence band, deviation of spin/momentum
distribution away from equilibrium relaxes rapidly
for holes.
Our spin current is free from this rapid relaxation, because
the spin/momentum distribution is in equilibrium.
(The spin current originates from anomalous velocity.)
Detection of spin
(b) Measuring the circular
current
(a) Measuring the polarization of emitted light
conductance difference by
by attaching attaching n-GaAs z
ferromagnetic electrode
y
z
x
y
x
J
p-GaAs J s
J
GaAs
Js
p-GaAs (In,Ga)As
σ+
GaAs
I ferro. n-GaAs
Spin injection by ferromagnetic
semiconductor Ga1-x MnxAs
Ohno et al., Nature 402,790 (1999)
Spin accumulation at the boundary
p-GaAs
p-GaAs : x ≤ 0
0 x Spin current : j xy ( x) = j xyθ (− x)
j xy

Diffusion eq.
∂s y ( x, t ) ∂ 2 s y ( x, t ) ∂j xy ( x, t ) s y ( x, t )
−D =− −
∂t ∂x 2
∂x τs
τ s x/ L
Steady-state solution:s y ( x) = j xy e , L ≡ Dτ s
D

sy
Total
stotal = j xyτ s
accumulated
spins:

0 x
L ≡ Dτ s
Detection of spin current by measuring accumulated
spins (d) Convert hole
(c) Accumulation of hole
spins spins
+
σ into electron spins
+
σ

p-GaAs n-GaAs
p-GaAs
Charge current J: = 10 4 A/cm2

τ s = 100f sec
At room temperature:
τ s := 100p sec
At room temperature

stotal = j xyτ s = 3 ×109 µ B / cm 2

j xyτ s = 1012−13 µ B / cm 2
L = 4nm L = 0.1 − 1µm

At 30K : τ s = 30p sec

stotal = j xyτ s = 1012 µ B / cm 2

Conclusion & Discussion
• A new type of dissipationless quantum spin transport,
realizable at room temperature.
• Similar to the edge transport of the QHE. Can be
viewed as the 3D edge transport of the 4D QHE.
• Topological origin, spin conductivity is an integral
over the monopole field strength, over all states
below the fermi energy.
• Instrinsic spin injection in spintronics devices.
• Spin injection without magnetic field or ferromagnet.
• Spins created inside the semiconductor, no issues
with the interface.
• Room temperature injection.
• Source of polarized LED.
• Reversible quantum computation.