Spin accumulation in ballistic Rashba bar

Abstract

We propose an analytic model to study intrinsic spin polarization effect in a ballistic Rashba bar with two semi-infinite leads. The wave functions expanded with plane waves in Rashba bar are required to satisfy boundary conditions at both longitudinal and transverse interfaces. We find out-of-plane spin Hall accumulation effect can be induced in the Rashba bar even with large dimensions by injecting unpolarized current from the lead. The longitudinal in-plane spin Hall effect, however, becomes obscure in large-size sample. An interesting direction-flipping of the out-of-plane spin accumulation is predicted by altering the Rashba coupling strength.