Abstract
We investigate the intrinsic spin Hall effect in two-dimensional electron gases in quantum wells with two subbands, where a new intersubband-induced spin-orbit coupling is operative. The bulk spin Hall conductivity is calculated in the ballistic limit within the standard Kubo formalism in the presence of a magnetic field and is found to remain finite in the limit, as long as only the lowest subband is occupied. Our calculated exhibits a nonmonotonic behavior and can change its sign as the Fermi energy (the carrier areal density ) is varied between the subband edges. We determine the magnitude of for realistic InSb quantum wells by performing a self-consistent calculation of the intersubband-induced spin-orbit coupling.
- Received 24 July 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.155314
©2009 American Physical Society