Observation of the crossover between metallic and insulating regimes of the spin Hall effect

The physics of the anomalous and spin Hall effects is one of the most intriguing aspects of condensed matter physics. An important finding from a large collection of experimental and theoretical results is the universal scaling of the anomalous or spin Hall conductivity with the electric conductivity. This scaling has been successfully described by the intrinsic Berry curvature and extrinsic scattering mechanisms for metallic systems, revealing the topological nature of these effects. In contrast, the underlying physics in the opposite limit, the disordered insulating regime, is still unclear. In particular, it remains a major challenge, both experimentally and theoretically, to explore the spin Hall effect in the insulating regime. Here, we report the observation of the crossover between the metallic and insulating regimes of the spin Hall effect. The result demonstrates a direct correspondence between the spin and anomalous Hall effects, which will advance the fundamental understanding of spin transport.

Valley and spin accumulation in ballistic and hydrodynamic channels

A theory of the valley and spin Hall effects and resulting accumulation of the valley and spin polarization is developed for ultraclean channels made of two-dimensional semiconductors where the electron mean free path due to the residual disorder or phonons exceeds the channel width. Both ballistic and hydrodynamic regimes of the electron transport are studied. The polarization accumulation is determined by interplay of the anomalous velocity, side-jump and skew scattering effects. In the hydrodynamic regime, where the electron-electron scattering is dominant, the valley and spin current generation and dissipation by the electron-electron collisions are taken into account. The accumulated polarization magnitude and its spatial distribution depend strongly on the transport regime. The polarization is much larger in the hydrodynamic regime as compared to the ballistic one. Significant valley and spin polarization arises in the immediate vicinity of the channel edges due to the side-jump and skew scattering mechanisms.

Angular momentum redirection phase of vector beams in a non-planar geometry

An electric field propagating along a non-planar path can acquire geometric phases. Previously, geometric phases have been linked to spin redirection and independently to spatial mode transformation, resulting in the rotation of polarisation and intensity profiles, respectively. We investigate the non-planar propagation of scalar and vector light fields and demonstrate that polarisation and intensity profiles rotate by the same angle. The geometric phase acquired is proportional to j = ℓ + σ, where ℓ is the topological charge and σ is the helicity. Radial and azimuthally polarised beams with j = 0 are eigenmodes of the system and are not affected by the geometric path. The effects considered here are relevant for systems relying on photonic spin Hall effects, polarisation and vector microscopy, as well as topological optics in communication systems.

Spin-orbit interactions of transverse sound

Spin-orbit interactions (SOIs) endow light with intriguing properties and applications such as photonic spin-Hall effects and spin-dependent vortex generations. However, it is counterintuitive that SOIs can exist for sound, which is a longitudinal wave that carries no intrinsic spin. Here, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that airborne sound can possess artificial transversality in an acoustic micropolar metamaterial and thus carry both spin and orbital angular momentum. This enables the realization of acoustic SOIs with rich phenomena beyond those in conventional acoustic systems. We demonstrate that acoustic activity of the metamaterial can induce coupling between the spin and linear crystal momentum k, which leads to negative refraction of the transverse sound. In addition, we show that the scattering of the transverse sound by a dipole particle can generate spin-dependent acoustic vortices via the geometric phase effect. The acoustic SOIs can provide new perspectives and functionalities for sound manipulations beyond the conventional scalar degree of freedom and may open an avenue to the development of spin-orbit acoustics.

Superior robustness of anomalous non-reciprocal topological edge states

Robustness against disorder and defects is a pivotal advantage of topological systems1, manifested by the absence of electronic backscattering in the quantum-Hall2 and spin-Hall effects3, and by unidirectional waveguiding in their classical analogues4,5. Two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators4–13, in particular, provide unprecedented opportunities in a variety of fields owing to their compact planar geometries, which are compatible with the fabrication technologies used in modern electronics and photonics. Among all 2D topological phases, Chern insulators14–25 are currently the most reliable designs owing to the genuine backscattering immunity of their non-reciprocal edge modes, brought via time-reversal symmetry breaking. Yet such resistance to fabrication tolerances is limited to fluctuations of the same order of magnitude as their bandgap, limiting their resilience to small perturbations only. Here we investigate the robustness problem in a system where edge transmission can survive disorder levels with strengths arbitrarily larger than the bandgap—an anomalous non-reciprocal topological network. We explore the general conditions needed to obtain such an unusual effect in systems made of unitary three-port non-reciprocal scatterers connected by phase links, and establish the superior robustness of anomalous edge transmission modes over Chern ones to phase-link disorder of arbitrarily large values. We confirm experimentally the exceptional resilience of the anomalous phase, and demonstrate its operation in various arbitrarily shaped disordered multi-port prototypes. Our results pave the way to efficient, arbitrary planar energy transport on 2D substrates for wave devices with full protection against large fabrication flaws or imperfections.

X-ray study of ferroic octupole order producing anomalous Hall effect

Recently found anomalous Hall, Nernst, magnetooptical Kerr, and spin Hall effects in the antiferromagnets Mn3X (X = Sn, Ge) are attracting much attention for spintronics and energy harvesting. Since these materials are antiferromagnets, the origin of these functionalities is expected to be different from that of conventional ferromagnets. Here, we report the observation of ferroic order of magnetic octupole in Mn3Sn by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, which is only predicted theoretically so far. The observed signals are clearly decoupled with the behaviors of uniform magnetization, indicating that the present X-ray magnetic circular dichroism is not arising from the conventional magnetization. We have found that the appearance of this anomalous signal coincides with the time reversal symmetry broken cluster magnetic octupole order. Our study demonstrates that the exotic material functionalities are closely related to the multipole order, which can produce unconventional cross correlation functionalities.

Observation of the crossover between metallic and insulating regimes of the spin Hall effect

The physics of the anomalous and spin Hall effects is one of the most intriguing aspects of condensed matter physics. An important finding from a large collection of experimental and theoretical results is the universal scaling of the anomalous or spin Hall conductivity with the electric conductivity. This scaling has been successfully described by the intrinsic Berry curvature and extrinsic scattering mechanisms for metallic systems, revealing the topological nature of these effects. In contrast, the underlying physics in the opposite limit, the disordered insulating regime, is still unclear. In particular, it remains a major challenge to explore the spin Hall effect in the insulating regime. Here, we report the observation of the crossover between the metallic and insulating regimes of the spin Hall effect. The result demonstrates an important correspondence between the spin and anomalous Hall effects, which provides essential information for the fundamental understanding of spin transport.

Anomalous spin Hall and inverse spin Hall effects in magnetic systems

Spin current is a very important tensor quantity in spintronics. However, the well-known spin-Hall effect (SHE) can only generate a few of its components whose propagating and polarization directions are perpendicular with each other and to an applied charge current. It is highly desirable in applications to generate spin currents whose polarization can be in any possible direction. Here anomalous SHE and inverse spin-Hall effect (ISHE) in magnetic systems are predicted. Spin currents, whose polarisation and propagation are collinear or orthogonal with each other and along or perpendicular to the charge current, can be generated, depending on whether the applied charge current is along or perpendicular to the order parameter. In anomalous ISHEs, charge currents proportional to the order parameter can be along or perpendicular to the propagating or polarization directions of the spin current.