Relativistic effects in the response of spin-polarized electrons to external fields

Relativistic effects in the electronic structure, especially spin-orbit coupling, do not only modify usual transport characteristics of metallic ferromagnets but they lead also to fundamentally novel phenomena important for further progress in magnetoelectronics. Within the proposed project, we intend to derive the corresponding theoretical formalism, going beyond the Kubo linear response theory for the conductivity tensor, which will be combined with an up-to-date ab initio theory of solids. The developed theoretical approaches will be used for investigation of selected phenomena (anomalous Hall effect, non-equilibrium spin torques, magnetic damping parameters) and bulk systems with potentially strong magnetotransport response. Special attention will be focused on multicomponent multisublattice systems, such as, e.g., Heusler alloys, including systems without inversion symmetry, with substitutional randomness, and with non-collinear and disordered magnetic structures. We intend to develop formalism of linear response theory to describe transport characteristics of metallic ferromagnets with spin-orbit coupling.