Spin Hall and Edelstein effects in metallic films: From two to three dimensions

A normal metallic film sandwiched between two insulators may have strong spin-orbit coupling near the metal-insulator interfaces, even if spin-orbit coupling is negligible in the bulk of the film. In this paper, we study two technologically important and deeply interconnected effects that arise from interfacial spin-orbit coupling in metallic films. The first is the spin Hall effect, whereby a charge current in the plane of the film is partially converted into an orthogonal spin current in the same plane. The second is the Edelstein effect, in which a charge current produces an in-plane, transverse spin polarization. At variance with strictly two-dimensional Rashba systems, we find that the spin Hall conductivity has a finite value even if spin-orbit interaction with impurities is neglected and “vertex corrections” are properly taken into account. Even more remarkably, such a finite value becomes “universal” in a certain configuration. This is a direct consequence of the spatial dependence of spin-orbit coupling on the third dimension, perpendicular to the plane of the film. The nonvanishing spin Hall conductivity has a profound influence on the Edelstein effect, which we show to consist of two terms, the first with the standard form valid in a strictly two-dimensional Rashba system, and a second arising from the presence of the third dimension. Whereas the standard term is proportional to the momentum relaxation time, the new one scales with the spin relaxation time. Our results, although derived in a specific model, should be valid rather generally, whenever a spatially dependent Rashba spin-orbit coupling is present and the electron motion is not strictly two dimensional.