Temperature dependence of the intrinsic spin Hall effect in Rashba spin-orbit coupled systems

We investigate the temperature dependence of the intrinsic charge and spin transport in two-dimensional semiconductors with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. For 2 alpha k(F)(0) -2m alpha(2)/h(2) < h omega < 2 alpha k(F)(0) + 2m alpha(2)/h(2) (where alpha is the Rashba spin-orbit coupling parameter), the real part of the optical conductivity (sigma(R)(omega)) and the imaginary part of the spin Hall conductivity (sigma H-I(s)(omega)) decrease with temperature monotonically. Outside this frequency range, sigma(R)(omega) and sigma(I)(sH)(omega) exhibit resonant behavior. At high frequencies, sigma(R)(sH)(omega) changes sign at a characteristic temperature T-1. Our result suggests that the sign and magnitude of sigma(R)(sH)(omega) can be tuned by changing the temperature. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2008.