Impact of crystalline anisotropy on the extrinsic spin Hall effect in ultrathin films

An efficient conversion of a charge current into a spin current is a crucial point for application of the spin Hall effect in practical spintronic devices. Recently, we revealed that this goal can be achieved by using ultrathin fcc (111) and (001) noble metal films doped with Bi impurities, which possess spin Hall angles up to 80%. Here, we show that the effect can be further amplified in monolayer films with a strong crystalline anisotropy. This is demonstrated by considering noble metal films with fcc (110) geometry. Our theoretical study predicts related spin Hall angles exceeding 100% especially when the crystalline anisotropy is increased, which tunes the Fermi surface topology.