Orbital Edelstein effect from the gradient of a scalar potential

Abstract

We study the orbital Edelstein effect (OEE) that originates from a particular inversion symmetry breaking mechanism: an asymmetric scalar potential. We compute OEE of this kind with the help of the Kubo formula in the diffusive regime for a parabolic band Hamiltonian. We also present a qualitative derivation of the effect. Both approaches give the same result. This result does not rely on spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and scales as a cube of the momentum relaxation time. In sufficiently clean large systems with weak SOC, OEE of this nature should exceed the spin Edelstein effect by orders of magnitude. It may also provide an alternative interpretation for some experiments concerning the spin Hall effect.