Role of Disorder in the Intrinsic Orbital Hall Effect

We investigate the effect of random defect scattering on the orbital Hall effect by solving a quantum Boltzmann equation. Depending on the specific orbital textures, diffuse scattering by an arbitrarily weak disorder can affect and even fully suppress an intrinsic orbital Hall current. From the results for a simple model, we infer that disorder can play an important role in orbitronics in general.