title: Spin accumulation with spin-orbit interaction.
abstract: Spin accumulation is a crucial but imprecise concept in spintronics. In metal-based spintronics it is characterized in terms of semiclassical distribution functions. In semiconductors with a strong spin-orbit coupling the spin accumulation is interpreted as a superposition of coherent eigenstates. Both views can be reconciled by taking into account the electron-electron interaction: a sufficiently strong self-consistent exchange field reduces a spin accumulation to a chemical potential difference between the two spin bands even in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. We demonstrate the idea on a clean two-dimensional electron gas by showing how the exchange field protects a spin accumulation from dephasing and introduces an easy-plane anisotropy.
authors.affiliation: Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, 2628-CJ Delft, The Netherlands. h.m.saarikoski@tudelft.nl
authors.forename: Henri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saarikoski
authors.forename: Gerrit E W
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Bauer