Origin of the magnetic spin Hall effect: Spin current vorticity in the Fermi sea

Abstract

The interplay of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and magnetism gives rise to a plethora of charge-to-spin conversion phenomena that harbor great potential for spintronics applications. In addition to the spin Hall effect, magnets may exhibit a magnetic spin Hall effect (MSHE), as was recently discovered [M. Kimata et al., Nature (London) 565, 627 (2019)10.1038/s41586-018-0853-0]. To date, the MSHE is still awaiting its intuitive explanation. Here, we relate the MSHE to the vorticity of spin currents in the Fermi sea, which explains pictorially the origin of the MSHE. For all magnetic Laue groups that allow for nonzero spin current vorticities the related tensor elements of the MSH conductivity are given. Minimal requirements for the occurrence of a MSHE are compatibility with either a magnetization or a magnetic toroidal quadrupole. This finding implies in particular that the MSHE is expected in all ferromagnets with sufficiently large SOC. To substantiate our symmetry analysis, we present various models, in particular a two-dimensional magnetized Rashba electron gas, that corroborate an interpretation by means of spin current vortices. Considering thermally induced spin transport and the magnetic spin Nernst effect in magnetic insulators, which are brought about by magnons, our findings for electron transport can be carried over to the realm of spin caloritronics, heat-to-spin conversion, and energy harvesting.