Recent and forthcoming publications in pss: Phys. Status Solidi RRL 4/2014

The spin Hall effect (SHE) describes the generation of a spin current perpendicular to a spin-unpolarized charge current in the presence of spin–orbit coupling. In a simple picture the SHE is mediated through spin dependent scattering of charge carriers on impurities, leading to a spatial separation of spin-up and spindown charge carriers, what finally gives rise to a spin current. By means of the inverse spin Hall effect, that is the reciprocal mechanism of the spin Hall effect, a spin current induces a perpendicular charge current. The SHE offers plenty of potential applications in the large field of semiconductor spintronics, since it can be used as a spin source or as a spin detector. In this Feature Article, Ehlert et al. present different concepts and experiments for the detection of the SHE in semiconductors. In contrast to previous approaches, the focus here is on the all-electrical implementation of such devices, which overcome the necessity of external equipment, e.g. lasers for spin pumping.