Quantum intrinsic ${\cal T}$-odd spin Hall effect in altermagnets

Abstract

Drude weight, historically associated with the longitudinal Drude conductivity, can be generalized to describe the transverse or Hall component of the extrinsic conductivity tensor. In particular, transverse Drude weights, such as band geometric quantities Berry curvature dipole and spin vorticity, manifest themselves through the \textit{extrinsic} second-order nonlinear Hall effect and \textit{extrinsic} linear spin Hall effect (SHE) in diffusive transport, respectively. In this work, we uncover a new class of intrinsic Hall effects in quantum transport regime, termed as quantum intrinsic Hall effect (QIHE), which is the manifestation of system symmetry through intrinsic transport phenomena. For a given Hamiltonian, its transport characteristics can be revealed either intrinsically through QIHE in ballistic regime or extrinsically via the transverse Drude weight in diffusive transport, where both intrinsic and extrinsic effects share the same salient transport features governed by symmetry of the Hamiltonian. The physical origin of QIHE is attributed to quantum boundary scattering of the measurement setup that respects the system symmetry, as exemplified by the contact resistance of a two-terminal ballistic conductor. We demonstrate our finding by studying the quantum ${\cal T}$-odd ($\mathcal{T}$, time-reversal) SHE in altermagnets. Our work paves a way towards the quantum transport manifestation of band geometric characteristics.