Center for Artificial Low Dimensional Electronic Systems

Toward accurate calculation of diffusive spin transport starting from realistic Hamiltonians: Applications to electrons, polaritons, holes, and excitons

Vincent Sacksteder

September 12(Mon) - September 12(Mon), 2016

Toward accurate calculation of diffusive spin transport starting from realistic Hamiltonians: Applications to electrons,

polaritons, holes, and excitons

Vincent Sacksteder (Royal Holloway Univ.)

Spin-orbit couplings, in the presence of an electric current, can generate strong spin currents with possible applications to spintronics devices. For example, recent experiments demonstrated domain switching driven by electrical current in a CoPt bilayer with strong spinorbit coupling. This talk will focus on a coarse-graining strategy for obtaining spin diffusion equations suitable for modeling a spintronics device. After reviewing the standard formalism, we discuss the possibility of deriving spin diffusion coefficients numerically, allowing the use of very realistic and detailed microscopic Hamiltonians. We present results for spin polarization production and characteristic spatial patterns in hole-doped materials, polaritons, electrons, and excitons