Spin Hall Drag in electronic bilayers

Abstract

We predict a new effect in electronic bilayers: the Spin Hall Drag. The effect consists in the generation of spin accumulation across one layer by an electric current along the other layer. It arises from the combined action of spin-orbit and Coulomb interactions. Our theoretical analysis, based on the Boltzmann equation formalism, identifies two main contributions to the spin Hall drag
resistivity: the side-jump contribution, which dominates at low temperature, going as T2, and the skew-scattering contribution, which is proportional to T3. The induced spin accumulation is large enough to be detected in optical rotation experiments.