Electrical Spin Generation and Transport in Spin-Orbit Coupled Systems

We consider spin generation and transport in bands with built-in spin-orbit coupling. A number of fundamental issues will be discussed: (1) the existence of spin-dipole and torque-dipole of wave packets which model the carriers; (2) source terms in the continuity equation (spin generation and relaxation); (3) the composition of the spin current (Berry phase and more); (4) spin Hall conductivity and its reciprocal; (5) the spin current responsible for spin accumulation.\\[4pt] References:\\[0pt] [1] D. Culcer, J. Sinova, N. A. Sinitsyn, T. Jungwirth, A. H.MacDonald, Q. Niu, `Semiclassical theory of spin transport in spin-orbit coupled systems', Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 046602 (2004).\\[0pt] [2] P. Zhang and Q. Niu, `Charge-Hall effect driven by spin force: reciprocal of the spin-Hall effect' Cond-mat/0406436.\\[0pt] [3] D. Culcer, Y. G. Yao, A. H. MacDonald, and Q. Niu, `Electric generation of spin in crystals with reduced symmetry', Cond-mat/0408020.