Current-induced torques and transport in Rashba ferromagnets

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments, in this thesis we study the effect of spin orbit coupling on current induced torques. To do so, we first introduce a simple model for ferromagnets in which spin-orbit coupling is not taken into account and we motivate the need to include it in the theory. After that we introduce the Rashba Hamiltonian including spin-orbit coupling and we use the Boltzmann equation to obtain the electron distribution function in the presence of external fields, from which the spin density, spin torques, and transport properties are determined. We find expressions for the current and heat current induced torques, to first order in the strength of the spin-orbit coupling and the external fields.