We provide a heuristic derivation of the "Inverse Edelstein Effect" (IEE), in which a non-equilibrium spin accumulation in the plane of a two-dimensional (interfacial) electron gas drives an electric current perpendicular to its own direction. The drift-diffusion equations that govern the effect are derived and applied to the interpretation of recent experiments. A brief analysis based on the Kubo formula shows that the result is valid also outside the diffusive regime, i.e. when spin and momentum relaxation become comparable.
In an insulator-metal-insulator junction, inversion-symmetry breaking at the interfaces between the 3D metallic film and the top and bottom insulating layers may give rise to a sizeable (Rashba-like) spin-orbit interaction. In this paper we study the spin Hall and Edelstein effects produced by such an interface interaction through a quasiclassical approach. We find that the spin Hall conductivity has a finite value even if spin-orbit interaction with impurities in the bulk of the metallic film is neglected and disorder is properly taken into account. This is in sharp contrast with the case of a strictly 2D metallic layer, in which case impurity scattering is known to completely suppress Rashba-like contributions to the spin Hall conductivity. The non-vanishing of the latter has a profound influence on the Edelstein effect, which we show to consist of two terms, the first with the standard form valid in an exactly 2D system, and a second arising from the presence of the third dimension.
In this paper we study the current-induced spin polarization in a two-dimensional electron gas, known also as the Edelstein effect. Compared to previous treatments, we consider both the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction as well as the spin-orbit interaction from impurity scattering. In evaluating the Kubo formula for the spin polarization response to an applied electric field, we explicitly take into account the side-jump and skew-scattering effects. We show that the inclusion of side-jump and skew-scattering modifies the expression of the current-induced spin polarization.
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