Visualization of the spin-splitter effect in altermagnets via nonequilibrium Green's functions on a lattice

When a charge current is injected into an altermagnet along a suitable crystallographic direction, a transverse spin current can be generated. This so-called spin-splitter effect does not rely on spin-orbit coupling and is thus distinct from the spin Hall effect. The spin-splitter effect was predicted by ab initio calculations and has been experimentally confirmed. To utilize the spin-splitter effect for practical purposes in spintronic devices, it is important to understand (i) how the system parameters affect the transverse spin current, such as filling fraction, altermagnetic strength, interface parameters, spin-orbit interactions, and impurities, and (ii) determine the properties of any associated spin accumulation, which is the measurable quantity. Here, we determine the answer to these questions and provide a real-space visualization of the spin flow and spin accumulation due to the spin-splitter effect. We utilize the nonequilibrium Keldysh Green's-function method on a two-dimensional square lattice to this end. We find that the presence of edges induces oscillations in the spin accumulation and strongly modifies the signal for small samples. At half filling, the spin accumulation acquires an anomalous pattern and the spin-splitter effect vanishes. We prove analytically that this follows from a combined particle-hole and spin-reversal symmetry of the model used for the altermagnetic state. Increasing the altermagnetic strength leads to a larger spin accumulation, as expected. However, when adding Rashba spin-orbit interaction, providing an additional spin Hall signal, we find that the spin accumulation is not simply the sum of the spin Hall and spin-splitter contribution. Finally, we show that the spin-splitter effect is robust towards moderate impurity scattering with a potential of the same order as the hopping parameter, which facilitates its observation in real materials.