Diffuse transport and spin accumulation in a Rashba two-dimensional electron gas

Jun-ichiro Inoue, Gerrit E. W. Bauer, Laurens W. Molenkamp

Published 2002-11-08Version 1

The Rashba Hamiltonian describes the splitting of the conduction band as a result of spin-orbit coupling in the presence of an asymmetric confinement potential and is commonly used to model the electronic structure of confined narrow-gap semiconductors. Due to the mixing of spin states some care has to be exercised in the calculation of transport properties. We derive the diffusive conductance tensor for a disordered two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit interaction and show that the applied bias induces a spin accumulation, but that the electric current is not spin-polarized.