All-electrical generation of spin-polarized currents in quantum spin Hall insulators

The control and generation of spin-polarized current (SPC) without magnetic materials and an external magnetic field is a big challenge in spintronics and normally requires a spin-flip mechanism. In this Rapid Communication, we show the theoretical discovery of all-electrical generation of SPC without relying on spin-flip spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We find that the SPC can be produced as long as an energy-dependent phase difference between the spin up and down electrons can be established. We verify this through quantum transport calculations on a gated stanene zigzag nanoribbon, which is a quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator. Our calculations indicate that the transient current as well as ac conductance are significantly spin polarized, which results from the genetic phase difference between spin up and down electrons after traversing the system. Our results are robust against edge imperfections and generally valid for other QSH insulators, such as silicene and germanene, etc. These findings establish a different route for generating SPCs by purely electrical means and open the door for interesting applications of semiconductor spintronics.