Spin-dependent Fano effect through parallel-coupled double quantum dots

Based on the nonequilibrium Green' function method, the spin-dependent Fano effect through parallel-coupled double quantum dots has been investigated by taking account of both Rashba spin-orbit interaction and intradot Coulomb interaction. It is shown that the quantum interference through the bonding, antibonding states and through their Coulomb blockade counterparts may result in two Breit-Wigner resonances and two Fano resonances in the conductance spectra. Moreover, the Fano lineshape of the two spin components can be modulated by Rashba spin-orbit interaction when the magnetic flux is switched on.     

Rashba spin-orbit effect on dwell time of electrons tunneling through semiconductor barrier

A study on characteristics of electrons tunneling through semiconductor barrier is evaluated, in which we take into account the effects of Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Our numerical results show that Rashba spin-orbit effect originating from the inversion asymmetry can give rise to the spin polarization. The spin polarization does not increase linearly but shows obvious resonant features as the strength of Rashba spin-orbit coupling increases, and the amplitudes of spin polarization can reach the highest around the first resonant energy level. Furthermore, it is found that electrons with different spin orientations will spend quite different time through the same heterostructures. The difference of the dwell time between spin-up and spin-down electrons arise from the Rashba spin-orbit coupling. And it is also found that the dwell time will reach its maximum at the first resonant energy level. It can be concluded that, in the time domain, the tunneling processes of the spin-up and spin-down electrons can be separated by modulating the strength of Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Study results indicate that Rashba spin-orbit effect can cause a nature spin filter mechanism in the time domain.     

Proposal for measuring mechanically equilibrium spin currents in the rashba medium

We demonstrate that an equilibrium spin current in a 2D electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction (Rashba medium) results in a mechanical torque on a substrate near an edge of the medium. If the substrate is a cantilever, the mechanical torque displaces the free end of the cantilever. The effect can be enhanced and tuned by a magnetic field. Observation of this displacement would be an effective method to prove the existence of equilibrium spin currents. The analysis of edges of the Rashba medium demonstrates the existence of localized edge states. They form a 1D continuum of states. This suggests a new type of quantum wire: spin-orbit quantum wire.     

Zero field spin splitting in asymmetric quantum wells

Spin splitting of asymmetric quantum wells is theoretically investigated in the absence of any electric field, including the contribution of interface-related Rashba spin-orbit interaction as well as linear and cubic Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction. The effect of interface asymmetry on three types of spin-orbit interaction is discussed. The results show that interface-related Rashba and linear Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction can be increased and cubic Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction can be decreased by well structure design. For wide quantum wells, the cubic Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction dominates under certain conditions, resulting in decreased spin relaxation time.     

Rashba spin-orbit interaction and shot noise for spin-polarized and entangled electrons

We study shot noise for spin-polarized currents and entangled electron pairs in a four-probe (beam-splitter) geometry with a local Rashba spin-orbit (s-o) interaction in the incoming leads. Within the scattering formalism we find that shot noise exhibits Rashba-induced oscillations with continuous bunching and antibunching. We show that entangled states and triplet states can be identified via their Rashba phase in noise measurements. For two-channel leads, we find an additional spin rotation due to s-o induced interband coupling which enhances spin control. We show that the s-o interaction deter-mines the Fano factor, which provides a direct way to measure the Rashba coupling constant via noise.     

Rashba自旋-轨道相互作用对一维谐振子势场中电子性质的影响

分析了Rashba自旋-轨道相互作用对一维谐振子势场中电子性质的影响,发现该自旋-轨道相互作用能够导致能级之间的自旋翻转,并且自旋翻转的性质明显依赖于自旋-轨道耦合系数和参考系坐标之间的关系.     

Spin-polarized transport in one-dimensional waveguide structures with spatially-periodic electronic and magnetic fields

We investigate theoretically the spin-polarized transport in one-dimensional waveguide structure with spatially-periodic electronic and magnetic fields. The interplay of the spin-orbit interaction and in-plane magnetic field significantly modifies the spin-dependent transmission and the spin polarization. The in-plane magnetic fields increase the strength of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling effect for the electric fields along y axis and decrease this effect for reversing the electric fields, even counteract the Rashba spin-orbit coupling effect. It is very interesting to find that we may deduce the strength of the Rashba effect through this phenomenon.     

Persistent current in a magnetized Rashba ring

We theoretically study the persistent currents flowing in a Rashba quantum ring subjected to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. By introducing uniform or nonuniform magnetization into the ring, we find that a nonzero persistent charge current circulates in the ring, which stems from the original equilibrium spin current due to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Because of broken time reversal symmetry, the two oppositely flowing spin-up and spin-down charge currents of the equilibrium spin current are no longer equal, and so a net persistent charge current can flow in the system. It is also found that the persistent current can be modulated by the Fermi energy, the Rashba spin-orbit interaction strength and the magnetization in the ring. Moreover, the magnetization perpendicular to the ring plane can optimize the current. The persistent current flowing in the ring is a manifestation of the nonzero equilibrium spin current existing in the ring.     

Spin-polarized transport through a time-periodic non-magnetic semiconductor heterostructure

Spin-dependent Floquet scattering theory is developed to investigate the photon-assisted spin-polarized electron transport through a semiconductor heterostructure in the presence of an external electric field. Spin-dependent Fano resonances and spin-polarized electron transport through a laser irradiated time-periodic non-magnetic heterostructure in the presence of Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction and a gate-controlled Rashba spin-orbit interaction are investigated. The electric field due to laser along with the spin-orbit interactions help to get spin-dependent Fano resonances in the conductance, whereas the external bias can be appropriately adjusted to get a near 80% spin-polarized electron transmission through heterostructures. The resultant nature of the Floquet scattering depends on the relative strength of these two electric fields.     

Spin Hall and spin Nernst effects in graphene with intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit interactions

The spin Hall and spin Nernst effects in graphene are studied based on Green’s function formalism.We calculate intrinsic contributions to spin Hall and spin Nernst conductivities in the Kane-Mele model with various structures.When both intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit interactions are present,their interplay leads to some characteristics of the dependence of spin Hall and spin Nernst conductivities on the Fermi level.When the Rashba spin-orbit interaction is smaller than intrinsic spin-orbit coupling,a weak kink in the conductance appears.The kink disappears and a divergence appears when the Rashba spin-orbit interaction enhances.When the Rashba spin-orbit interaction approaches and is stronger than intrinsic spin-orbit coupling,the divergence becomes more obvious.     

Transport and thermodynamic properties of a 2DEG in the presence of tilted magnetic field: the influence of Dresselhauss interaction

The effect of Dresselhauss spin-orbit coupling on transport and thermodynamic properties of a non-interacting two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is investigated. The Hamiltonian used also includes a tilted magnetic field and a Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The Dresselhauss spin-orbit interaction, likewise the Rashba spin-orbit interaction, introduces a beating pattern in the conductivity tensor and in the magnetization along the field direction. A method to estimate the contribution of the Rashba and Dresselhauss interactions to the beating pattern is given using the periodicity of the beating patterns.     

Effects of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling on Hofstadter's butterfly

We study the effect of Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the Hofstadter spectrum of a two-dimensional tight-binding electron system in a perpendicular magnetic field. We obtain the generalized coupled Harper spin-dependent equations which include the Rashba spin-orbit interaction and solve for the energy spectrum and spin polarization. We investigate the effect of spin-orbit coupling on the fractal energy spectrum and the spin polarization for some characteristic states as a function of the magnetic flux α and the spin-orbit coupling parameter. We characterize the complexity of the fractal geometry of the spin-dependent Hofstadter butterfly with the correlation dimension and show that it grows quadratically with the amplitude of the spin-orbit coupling. We study some ground state properties and the spin polarization shows a fractal-like behavior as a function of α, which is demonstrated with the exponent close to unity of the decaying power spectrum of the spin polarization. Some degree of spin localization or distribution around +1 or -1, for small spin-orbit coupling, is found with the determination of the entropy function as a function of the spin-orbit coupling. The excited states show a more extended (uniform) distribution of spin states.     

Two-dimensional S-N-S junction with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

The effect of Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the supercurrent in S-2DEG-S proximity junctions is investigated in the clean limit. A generalization of Beenakker’s formula for Andreev levels to the case of spin-orbit scattering is presented. Spin-orbit induced splitting of Andreev bound states is predicted for an infinite-width junction with nonvanishing normal backscattering at S-N interfaces. However, a semiclassical average of the Josephson current is insensitive to the Rashba coupling as long as the electron-electron interaction in 2DEG is neglected. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Voltage-controllable spin-polarized transport through parallel-coupled double quantum dots with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

A spin device, consisting of parallel-coupled double quantum dots and three normal metal leads, is proposed to realize spin-polarized current without the help of magnetic field and magnetic material. Based on the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green function technique and equation of motion method, the spin-dependent current formula in each lead is derived. It is shown that not only a fully polarized current but also a tunable pure spin current can be obtained by modulating the structure parameters, strength of Rashba spin-orbit interaction and bias voltages properly. It further demonstrates the dependence of the spin-polarized current on the strength of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction.     

Transport and thermodynamic properties of a 2DEG in the presence of tilted magnetic field: the influence of Rashba interaction

The effects of Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the physical properties of a non-interacting two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in presence of a tilted magnetic field are investigated. The spin-orbit and Zeeman interactions depend on the intensity and direction of the external magnetic field and we study their influence on the physical properties of the system. We obtain the energy spectrum, the density of states, the Fermi energy, and we analyze the combined effect of the Zeeman and Rashba Spin-Orbit Interaction on the transport and thermodynamic properties.     

Effect of Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the spin-polarized transport in ferromagnet/semiconductor double tunnel junctions

Considering the Rashba spin-orbit interaction in the semiconductor, we study theoretically the spin-polarized transport in a two-dimensional ferromagnetic semiconductor double tunnel junctions by a quantum-mechanical approach. It is found that the transmission coefficient shows typical resonant transmission properties and the Rashba spin-orbit coupling has great different influences on the transmission coefficients of electrons with spin-up and down and tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR). More importantly, the TMR is significantly enhanced by increasing the spin-orbit coupling, which is very useful for the designing of magnetic digital and memory sensor.     

Rashba自旋-轨道相互作用影响下量子盘中强耦合磁极化子性质的研究

本文基于Lee-Low-Pines幺正变换法,采用Tokuda改进的线性组合算符法研究了Rashba自旋-轨道相互作用效应下量子盘中强耦合磁极化子的性质.结果表明,磁极化子的相互作用能Eint的取值随量子盘横向受限强度ω0、外磁场的回旋频率ωc、电子-LO声子耦合强度α和量子盘厚度L的变化均与磁极化子的状态性质密切相关;磁极化子的平均声子数N随ωc,ω0和α的增加而增大,随L的增加而振荡减小;在Rashba自旋-轨道相互作用效应影响下磁极化子的有效质量将劈裂为m*+,m*-两种,它们随ωc,ω0和α的增加而增大,随L的增加而振荡减小;在研究量子盘中磁极化子问题时,电子-LO声子耦合和Rashba自旋-轨道相互作用效应的影响不可忽略,但Rashba自旋-轨道相互作用和极化子效应对磁极化子的影响只有在电子运动的速率较慢时显著.     

Fano effect in a T-shaped double quantum dot structure in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling

The influence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the Fano lineshape of the conductance spectrum in a T-shaped double quantum dot structure is theoretically studied. By second-quantizing the electron Hamiltonian in this structure, it is found that the Rashba interaction brings about a spin-flip interdot hopping term. With the enhancement of the Rashba interaction, this term separates the two resonant peaks in the conductance spectrum from each other. More importantly, it causes the broadening of the narrow Fano peak, and the narrowing of the broader peak. Finally, the asymmetric Fano lineshape changes into a symmetric profile in the global conductance spectrum.     

Ballistic spin interferometer based on the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions

By using the Al'tshuler-Aronov-Spivak (AAS) model, we give the amplitude changing with Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) and Dresselhaus SOI strength. In the first idea 1D square loop (SL), Rashba SOI acts on two sides while Dresselhaus SOI acts on the other two sides. In the second SL, we consume Rashba SOI and Dresselhaus SOI act on four sides simultaneously. This model can be replaced by another one that Rashba SOI and Dresselhaus SOI act on every side independently, and each side is twice long. We theoretically illustrate the influence of the Dresselhaus SOI on node position and number. To explain the “half oscillation” phenomenon found in experiment, we apply Dresselhaus SOI to the ideal 1D SL. The conclusion is that the Dresselhaus SOI has a strong effect on the emergence of “half oscillation”.     

六极子磁场中自旋轨道耦合玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体的基态结构

研究囚禁在环形势中的Rashba自旋轨道耦合玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体在六极子磁场中的基态特性。在这种情况下,磁场破坏了自旋轨道耦合哈密顿量的旋转对称性,但系统仍具有2π/3的离散对称性。数值结果发现:在弱相互作用情况下,六极子磁场和Rashba自旋轨道耦合使环形囚禁的凝聚体呈类六边形的基态密度分布,当磁场强度超过某一临界值时,凝聚体将崩塌;在强相互作用情况下,半量子涡旋出现在凝聚体中,且被六极子磁场钉在方位角Ф=nπ/3的径向位置,涡旋的旋转方向取决于径向磁场的方向。