Abstract
Recent theoretical investigations have shown that spin currents can be generated by passing electric currents through spin-orbit coupled mesoscopic systems. Measuring these spin currents has, however, not been achieved to date. We show how mesoscopic spin currents in lateral heterostructures can be measured with a single-channel voltage probe. In the presence of a spin current, the charge current through the quantum point contact connecting the probe is odd in an externally applied Zeeman field , while it is even in the absence of spin current. Furthermore, the zero-field derivative is proportional to the magnitude of the spin current, with a proportionality coefficient that can be determined in an independent measurement. We confirm these findings numerically.
- Received 8 December 2010
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.206602
© 2011 American Physical Society