Rashba torque beyond the Boltzmann regime

Cong Xiao, Qian Niu

Published 2017-05-31Version 1

We study spin torques induced by Rashba spin-orbit coupling in two-dimensional ferromagnets under the good-metal condition $\epsilon_{F}\tau/\hbar\gg1$ ($\epsilon_{F}$ the Fermi energy, $\tau$ the electron lifetime) by employing the Kubo formula. We find that, in the presence of spin-dependent disorder the Rashba torque changes greatly as the system evolves out of the weak disorder limit where $\hbar/\tau$ is much smaller than any intrinsic energy scale characterizing the multiband structure. The antidamping-like component of Rashba torque can be comparable to and larger than the field-like one out of the weak disorder limit. The semiclassical Boltzmann theory produces the same results as microscopic linear response calculations only in the weak disorder limit. Our analysis indicates that rich behaviors of various nonequilibrium phenomena beyond the Boltzmann theory may also be present even when $\epsilon_{F}\tau/\hbar\gg1$ in multiband systems where $\epsilon_{F}$ is not the unique intrinsic energy scale.