Spin Coulomb drag in the two-dimensional electron liquid

Abstract

We calculate the spin-drag transresistivity $\rho_{\uparrow \downarrow}(T)$ in a two-dimensional electron gas at temperature $T$ in the random phase approximation. In the low-temperature regime we show that, at variance with the three-dimensional low-temperature result [$\rho_{\uparrow\downarrow}(T) \sim T^2$], the spin transresistivity of a two-dimensional {\it spin unpolarized} electron gas has the form $\rho_{\uparrow\downarrow}(T) \sim T^2 \ln T$. In the spin-polarized case the familiar form $\rho_{\uparrow\downarrow}(T) =A T^2$ is recovered, but the constant of proportionality $A$ diverges logarithmically as the spin-polarization tends to zero. In the high-temperature regime we obtain $\rho_{\uparrow \downarrow}(T) = -(\hbar / e^2) (\pi^2 Ry^* /k_B T)$ (where $Ry^*$ is the effective Rydberg energy) {\it independent} of the density. Again, this differs from the three-dimensional result, which has a logarithmic dependence on the density. Two important differences between the spin-drag transresistivity and the ordinary Coulomb drag transresistivity are pointed out: (i) The $\ln T$ singularity at low temperature is smaller, in the Coulomb drag case, by a factor $e^{-4 k_Fd}$ where $k_F$ is the Fermi wave vector and $d$ is the separation between the layers. (ii) The collective mode contribution to the spin-drag transresistivity is negligible at all temperatures. Moreover the spin drag effect is, for comparable parameters, larger than the ordinary Coulomb drag effect.