Motion-induced spin transfer

Abstract

We propose a spin transport induced by inertial motion. Our system is composed of two host media and a narrow vacuum gap in between. One of the hosts is sliding at a constant speed relative to the other. This mechanical motion causes the Doppler effect that shifts the density of states and the nonequilibrium distribution function in the moving medium. Those shifts induce the difference in the distribution function between the two media and result in tunnelling spin current. The spin current is calculated from the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism with a spin tunnelling Hamiltonian. This scheme does not require either temperature difference, voltage or chemical potential.