We use the Hirsch-Fye quantum Monte Carlo method to study the single magnetic impurity problem in a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We calculate the spin susceptibility for various values of spin-orbit coupling, Hubbard interaction, and chemical potential. The Kondo temperatures for different parameters are estimated by fitting the universal curves of spin suscepti...

Spin-orbit coupled systems generally break the spin rotation symmetry. However, for a model with equal Rashba and Dresselhauss coupling constants, and for the [110] Dresselhauss model, a new type of SU(2) spin rotation symmetry is discovered. This symmetry is robust against spin-independent disorder and interactions and is generated by operators whose wave vector depends on the coupling strengt...

We study the effects of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling on polaron formation, using a suitable generalization of the momentum average approximation. While previous work on a parabolic band model found that spin-orbit coupling increases the effective mass, we show that the opposite holds for a tight-binding model, unless both the spin-orbit and the electron-phonon couplings are weak. It is thus p...

The spin Hall effect in a two-dimensional electron system on honeycomb lattice with both intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit couplings is studied numerically. Integer quantized spin Hall conductance is obtained at the zero Rashba coupling limit when electron Fermi energy lies in the energy gap created by the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, in agreement with recent theoretical prediction. While nonze...

We propose a scheme which realizes spin-orbit coupling and the quantum spin Hall effect for neutral atoms in optical lattices without relying on near resonant laser light to couple different spin states. The spin-orbit coupling is created by modifying the motion of atoms in a spin-dependent way by laser recoil. The spin selectivity is provided by Zeeman shifts created with a magnetic field grad...

We measure transient spin accumulation in Cu, Ag, and Au by time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect. The transient spin current is generated by ultrafast demagnetization of a ferromagnetic [Co/Pt] layer, and spin accumulates in an adjacent normal metal, Cu, Ag, or Au by spin diffusion. The magnitude of the Kerr rotation is described by an off-diagonal conductivity tensor that is proportional ...

Exchange coupling across the cyanide bridge in a series of novel cyanometalate complexes with CuII-NC-MIII (M = Cr and low-spin Mn, Fe) fragments has been studied using the broken-symmetry DFT approach and an empirical model, which allows us to relate the exchange coupling constant with sigma-, pi-, and pi*-type spin densities of the CN- bridging ligand. Ferromagnetic exchange is found to be do...

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers can couple to confined phonons in diamond mechanical resonators via the effect of lattice strain on their energy levels. Access to the strong spin-phonon coupling regime with this system requires resonators with nanoscale dimensions in order to overcome the weak strain response of the NV ground-state spin sublevels. In this work, we incorporate photostable NVs in d...

Density functional theory, in particular, with the Becke-3-parameter-Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP) hybrid functional, has been shown to be a promising method for the calculation of indirect nuclear spin-spin coupling constants. However, no systematic investigation has so far been undertaken to evaluate the capability of B3LYP to calculate these coupling constants accurately, taking properly into accoun...