Transverse currents in spin transistors

Abstract

In many systems, planar Hall effect wherein transverse signal appears in response to longitudinal stimulus is rooted in spin-orbit coupling. A spin transistor put forward by Datta and Das on the other hand consists of ferromagnetic leads connected to spin-orbit coupled central region and its conductance can be controlled by tuning the strength of spin-orbit coupling. We find that transverse currents also appear in Datta-Das transistors made by connecting two two-dimensional ferromagnetic reservoirs to a central spin-orbit coupled two-dimensional electron gas. We find that the spin transistor exhibits a nonzero transverse conductivity which depends on the direction of polarization in ferromagnets and the location where it is measured. We study the conductivities for the system with finite and infinite widths. The conductivities exhibit Fabry-P\'erot type oscillations as the length of the spin-orbit coupled regions is varied. Interestingly, even in the limit when longitudinal conductivity is made zero by cutting off the junction between the central spin-orbit coupled region and the ferromagnetic lead on one side (right), the transverse conductivities remain nonzero in the regions that are on the left side of the cut-off junction.