Spin-Hall effect in 3D- and 2D-hole systems

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dieter Weiss
• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2007 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 41099714

The spin-Hall effect is about the generation of a transverse pure spin current by an electrical charge current as a consequence of spin-orbit interaction in, e.g., semiconductors. This spin current in turn can generate a detectable electric field (inverse spin-Hall effect). In our proposal we plan to explore the spin-Hall effect in three (3D) and two-dimensional (2D) hole systems. By employing p-epilayers and high mobility 2D hole systems (2DHS) in GaAs based heterojunctions we focus on three geometries, the "H-geometry", the "spin-injection-geometry" and a Hall bar geometry to probe the spin-Hall effect electrically. For the last phase of this Priority Program we put emphasis especially on the latter two geometries. Here, the Hall geometry is a new additional geometry which can be considered is an electrical analogue of Awschalom’s optical experiments.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1285: Semiconductor Spintronics