  The drift-diffusion formalism for spin-polarized carrier transport in
semiconductors is generalized to include spin-orbit coupling. The theory is
applied to treat the extrinsic spin Hall effect using realistic boundary
conditions. It is shown that carrier and spin diffusion lengths are modified by
the presence of spin-orbit coupling and that spin accumulation due to the
extrinsic spin Hall effect is strongly and qualitatively influenced by boundary
conditions. Analytical formulas for the spin-dependent carrier recombination
rates and inhomogeneous spin densities and currents are presented.
