Metal

Quantum mechanics

Electrical resistivity and conductivity

Spin (aerodynamics)

Engineering

Orbit (dynamics)

Aerospace engineering

Metallurgy

Materials science

Coupling (piping)

Economics

Thermodynamics

Physics

Angular momentum

Spin Hall effect

Condensed matter physics

Charge (physics)

Finance

Electron

Hall effect

Spin–orbit interaction

Order (exchange)

Spin polarization

Physical review. B./Physical review. B

A recent paper [Go $\textit{et al}$., Phys. Rev. Lett. $\textbf{121}$, 086602 (2018)] proposed that the intrinsic orbital Hall effect (OHE) can emerge from momentum-space orbital texture in centrosymmetric materials. In searching for real materials with strong OHE, we investigate the intrinsic OHE in metals with small spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in face-centered cubic and body-centered cubic structures (Li, Al, V, Cr, Mn, Ni, and Cu). We find that orbital Hall conductivities (OHCs) in these materials are gigantic $\sim 10^3-10^4\ (\hbar/e)(\Omega\cdot\mathrm{cm})^{-1}$, which are comparable or larger than spin Hall conductivity (SHC) of Pt. Although SHCs in these materials are smaller than OHCs due to small SOC, we found that SHCs are still sizable and the spin Hall angles may be of the order of 0.1. We discuss implications on recent spin-charge interconversion experiments on materials having small SOC.

Gigantic intrinsic orbital Hall effects in weakly spin-orbit coupled metals