| Dissipationless spin currents in conductors and in common and topological insulators are considered. The currents may exist at the equilibrium, or are induced by an external electric field (spin Hall effect). Edge spin accumulation in a 2D electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction subject to an electric field can take place without bulk spin currents (edge spin Hall effect). This is demonstrated for the collisional regime (Sonin, arXiv:cond-mat/0909.3156). The edge spin accumulation without bulk spin currents is also possible in topological insulators. |
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