Giant Spin Current Rectification Due to the Interplay of Negative Differential Conductance and a Non-Uniform Magnetic Field

Abstract

In XXZ chains with large enough interactions, spin transport can be significantly suppressed when the bias of the dissipative driving becomes large enough. This phenomenon of negative differential conductance is caused by the formation of two oppositely polarized ferromagnetic domains at the edges of the chain. Here, we show that this many-body effect, combined with a non-uniform magnetic field, can allow for a high degree of control of the spin current. In particular, by studying all of the possible shapes of local magnetic fields potentials, we find that a configuration in which the magnetic field points up for half of the chain and down for the other half, can result in giant spin-current rectification, for example, up to 108 for a system with only 8 spins. Our results show clear indications that the rectification can increase with the system size.

Keywords

• quantum transport
• spin current rectification
• spin chains
• strongly interacting systems out of equilibrium