Spin Hall effect in Sr2RuO4 and transition metals (Nb,Ta) Original Research Article

We study the intrinsic spin Hall conductivity (SHC) and the d-orbital Hall conductivity (OHC) in metallic d-electron systems based on the multiorbital tight-binding model. The obtained Hall conductivities are much larger than that in p-type semiconductors. The origin of these huge Hall effects is the “effective Aharonov–Bohm phase” induced by the signs of inter-orbital hopping integrals as well as atomic spin–orbit interaction. Huge SHC and OHC due to this mechanism is ubiquitous in multiorbital transition metals.