Mesoscopic fluctuations of spin currents

Abstract

Spin currents may be generated by applying bias voltages V to the nanostructures even in the absence of spin-active ferromagnetic interfaces. Most theoretical proposals concentrate on a concrete spin-orbit interaction and on the disorder-averaged effect. It remains underappreciated that any spin-orbit interaction produces random spin currents with a typical amplitude e^2 V/\hbar not affected by disorder. This work addresses such mesoscopic fluctuations of spin currents for generic model of a nanostructure where several quantum connectors meet in a single node. The analysis is performed in the framework of recently developed quantum circuit theory of G_Q corrections and reveals four distinct mechanisms of spin current fluctuations. The results are elaborated for simple models of tunnel and ballistic connectors.