1108.2938 (Vincent E. Sacksteder IV et al.)

Spin Conduction in Anisotropic 3-D Topological Insulators    [PDF]

Vincent E. Sacksteder IV, Stefan Kettemann, QuanSheng Wu, Xi Dai, Zhong Fang

When topological insulators possess rotational symmetry their spin lifetime
is tied to the scattering time. We show that in anisotropic TIs this tie can be
broken and the spin lifetime can be very large. Two different mechanisms can
obtain spin conduction over long distances. The first is tuning the Hamiltonian
to conserve a spin operator $\cos \phi \, \sigma_x + \sin \phi \, \sigma_y$,
while the second is tuning the Fermi energy to be near a local extremum of the
energy dispersion. Both mechanisms can produce persistent spin helices. We
report spin lifetimes and spin diffusion equations.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2938