Photocurrent spin diode: Electrically controlled sign reversal of current polarization

We report a study of spin-dependent transport through a quantum dot irradiated by continuous circularly polarized light resonant to the electron-heavy hole transition. We use the nonequilibrium Green's function to calculate the spin accumulation, spin-resolved currents, and current polarization in the presence of an external bias and intradot Coulomb interaction. It is found that for a range of external biases sign reversal of the current polarization can be modulated. The system thus operates as a rectifier for spin current polarization. This effect follows from the interplay between the external irradiation and the Coulomb repulsion. The spin-polarized transport through a three-terminal device is also discussed. Spin current with high polarization could be obtained due to spin filter effect.     

Adiabatic pumping in the mixed-valence and Kondo regimes

We investigate adiabatic pumping through a quantum dot with a single level in the mixed-valence and Kondo regimes using the slave boson mean field approximation. The pumped current is driven by a gauge potential due to time-dependent tunneling barriers as well as by the modulation of the Friedel phase. The sign of the former contribution depends on the strength of the Coulomb interaction. Under finite magnetic fields, the separation of the spin and charge currents peculiar to the Kondo effect occurs.     

Spin-polarized current through a lateral double quantum dot with spin–orbit interaction

We study the spin-polarized current through a vertical double quantum dot scheme. Both the Rashba spin–orbit (RSO) interaction inside one of the quantum dots and the strong intradot Coulomb interactions on the two dots are taken into account by using the second-quantized form of the Hamiltonian. Due to the existence of the RSO interaction, spin-up and spin-down electrons couple to the external leads with different strengths, and then a spin polarized current can be driven out of the middle lead by controlling a set of structure parameters and the external bias voltage. Moreover, by properly adjusting the dot levels and the external bias voltages, a pure spin current with no accompanying charge current can be generated in the weak coupling regime. We show that the difference between the intradot Coulomb interactions strongly influences the spin-polarized currents flowing through the middle lead and is undesirable in the generation of the net spin current. Based on the RSO interaction, the structure we propose can efficiently polarize the electron spin without the usage of any magnetic field or ferromagnetic material. This device can be used as a spin-battery and is realizable using the present available technologies.     

Spin and polarized current from Coulomb blockaded quantum dots

We report measurements of spin transitions for GaAs quantum dots in the Coulomb blockade regime and compare ground and excited state transport spectroscopy to direct measurements of the spin polarization of emitted current. Transport spectroscopy reveals both spin-increasing and spin-decreasing transitions, as well as higher-spin ground states, and allows g factors to be measured down to a single electron. The spin of emitted current in the Coulomb blockade regime, measured using spin-sensitive electron focusing, is found to be polarized along the direction of the applied magnetic field regardless of the ground state spin transition.     

Effects of geometry and linearly polarized cavity photons on charge and spin currents in a quantum ring with spin-orbit interactions

We calculate the persistent charge and spin polarization current inside a finite-width quantum ring of realistic geometry as a function of the strength of the Rashba or Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction. The time evolution in the transient regime of the two-dimensional (2D) quantum ring connected to electrically biased semi-infinite leads is governed by a time-convolutionless non-Markovian generalized master equation. The electrons are correlated via Coulomb interaction. In addition, the ring is embedded in a photon cavity with a single mode of linearly polarized photon field, which is polarized either perpendicular or parallel to the charge transport direction. To analyze carefully the physical effects, we compare to the analytical results of the toy model of a one-dimensional (1D) ring of non-interacting electrons with spin-orbit coupling. We find a pronounced charge current dip associated with many-electron level crossings at the Aharonov-Casher phase ΔΦ = π, which can be disguised by linearly polarized light. Qualitative agreement is found for the spin polarization currents of the 1D and 2D ring. Quantitatively, however, the spin polarization currents are weaker in the more realistic 2D ring, especially for weak spin-orbit interaction, but can be considerably enhanced with the aid of a linearly polarized electromagnetic field. Specific spin polarization current symmetries relating the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction case to the Rashba one are found to hold for the 2D ring, which is embedded in the photon cavity.     

Conditional spin counting statistics as a probe of Coulomb interaction and spin-resolved bunching

Full counting statistics is a powerful tool to characterize the noise and correlations in transport through mesoscopic systems. In this work, we propose the theory of conditional spin counting statistics, i.e., the statistical fluctuations of spin-up (down) current given the observation of the spin-down (up) current. In the context of transport through a single quantum dot, it is demonstrated that a strong Coulomb interaction leads to a conditional spin counting statistics that exhibits a substantial change in comparison to that without Coulomb repulsion. It thus can be served as an effective way to probe the Coulomb interactions in mesoscopic transport systems. In case of spin polarized transport, it is further shown that the conditional spin counting statistics offers a transparent tool to reveal the spin-resolved bunching behavior.     

四端双量子点系统中的自旋和电荷能斯特效应

基于非平衡态格林函数方法,理论研究了与四个电极耦合的双量子点系统中的自旋和电荷能斯特效应,考虑了不同电极的磁动量结构和量子点内以及量子点间电子的库仑相互作用对热电效应的影响.结果表明铁磁端口中的磁化方向能够有效地调节能斯特效应:当电极1和电极3中的磁化方向反平行排列时,通过施加横向的温度梯度,系统中将会出现纯的自旋能斯特效应;当电极4从普通金属端口转变为铁磁金属端口时,将同时观测到电荷和自旋能斯特效应.研究发现,能斯特效应对于铁磁电极极化强度的依赖程度较弱,但对库仑排斥作用十分敏感.在量子点内和点间库仑排斥作用的影响下,自旋及电荷能斯特系数有望提高两个数量级.     

Spin polarization of the current in a correlated one-dimensional conductor with an impurity

The spin transport as the current flows through an impurity in a one-dimensional conductor is analyzed. The interacting electrons are described in terms of the Luttinger liquid theory. Both the Coulomb and short-range interactions are considered; the latter appears when the gate screens the long-range part of the Coulomb potential. The cases of magnetic and nonmagnetic impurities are considered. It has been revealed that, for a magnetic impurity, the electric current flow induces the generation of the spin current, which has direct and alternating components. At low temperatures and voltages, the current can be completely spin-polarized. For a nonmagnetic impurity, the spin current generation is absent. The spin current flowing though the wire affects the current-voltage characteristic for both magnetic and nonmagnetic impurities. The results have been obtained for a rather strong electron-electron interaction.     

Spin Pumping from a Quantum Dot in the Presence of Decoherence

We study the pumped spin current of an interacting quantum dot tunnel coupled to a single lead in the presence of electron spin resonance （ESR） field. The spin decoherence in the dot is included by the Bffttiker approach. Using the nonequilibrium Green＇s function technique, we show that ESR-induced spin flip can generate finite spin current with no charge transport. Both the Coulomb interaction and spin decoherence decrease the amplitude of spin current. The dependence of pumped spin current on the intensity and frequency of ESR field, and the spin decoherence is discussed.     

电子关联效应对平行双量子点系统磁输运性质的影响

从理论上研究了平行双量子点系统中的电子关联效应对该系统磁输运性质的影响. 基于广义主方程方法, 计算了通过此系统的电流、微分电导和隧穿磁阻. 计算结果表明: 电子自旋关联效应可以促发一个很大的隧穿磁阻, 而电子库仑关联效应不仅可以压制电子自旋关联效应, 还可以导致负隧穿磁阻和负微分电导的出现. 对相关的基本物理问题进行了讨论.     

Pure spin-current diode based on interacting quantum dot tunneling junction

A magnetic field-controlled spin-current diode is theoretically proposed, which consists of a junction with an interacting quantum dot sandwiched between a pair of nonmagnetic electrodes. By applying a spin bias V_S across the junction, a pure spin current can be obtained in a certain gate voltage regime,regardless of whether the Coulomb repulsion energy exists. More interestingly, if we applied an external magnetic field on the quantum dot, we observed a clear asymmetry in the spectrum of spin current I_S as a function of spin bias, while the charge current always decays to zero in the Coulomb blockade regime. Such asymmetry in the current profile suggests a spin diode-like behavior with respect to the spin bias, while the net charge through the device is almost zero. Different from the traditional charge current diode, this design can change the polarity direction and rectifying ability by adjusting the external magnetic field, which is very convenient. This device scheme can be compatible with current technologies and has potential applications in spintronics or quantum processing.     

Triple Quantum Dot Molecule as a Spin-Splitter

We propose a spin-splitter composed of triple quantum dots that works due to the Coulomb blockade effect and the charge and spin biases applied on external electron source and drains. The spin biases are applied only on the two drains and give their spin-dependent chemical potentials, which act as the driving forces for electron spin-polarized transport. By tuning the biases and the dots＇ levels, spin-up and spin-down electrons can be simultaneously split or separated from the source into two different drains. We show that such a tunneling process is detectable in terms of the spin accumulations on the dots or the currents flowing through the external leads. The present device is quite simple and realizable within currently existing technologies.     

Nonlocal Andreev reflection with Rashba spin-orbital interaction in a triple-quantum-dot ring

We theoretically studied the nonlocal Andreev reflection with Rashba spin-orbital interaction in a triple-quantumdot(QD) ring,which is introduced as Rashba spin-orbital interaction to act locally on one component quantum dot.It is found that the electronic current and spin current are sensitive to the systematic parameters.The interdot spin-flip term does not play a leading role in causing electronic and spin currents.Otherwise the spin precessing term leads to shift of the peaks of the the spin-up and spin-down electronic currents in different directions and results in the spin current.Moreover,the spin-orbital interaction suppresses the nonlocal Andreev reflection,so we cannot obtain the pure spin current.     

Spin-filtered edge states in graphene

Spin–orbit coupling changes graphene, in principle, into a two-dimensional topological insulator, also known as quantum spin Hall insulator. One of the expected consequences is the existence of spin-filtered edge states that carry dissipationless spin currents and undergo no backscattering in the presence of non-magnetic disorder, leading to quantization of conductance. Whereas, due to the small size of spin–orbit coupling in graphene, the experimental observation of these remarkable predictions is unlikely, the theoretical understanding of these spin-filtered states is shedding light on the electronic properties of edge states in other two-dimensional quantum spin Hall insulators. Here we review the effect of a variety of perturbations, like curvature, disorder, edge reconstruction, edge crystallographic orientation, and Coulomb interactions on the electronic properties of these spin filtered states.     

Pumped spin-current and shot-noise spectra of a single quantum dot

We exploit the pumped spin-current and current noise spectra under equilibrium conditions in a single quantum dot connected to two normal leads as an electrical scheme for detection of the electron spin resonance (ESR) and decoherence. We propose spin-resolved quantum rate equations with correlation functions in Laplace space for the analytical derivation of the zero-frequency auto- and cross-shot noise spectra of charge and spin current. Our results show that in the strong Coulomb blockade regime, ESR-induced spin flip generates a finite spin current and quantum partition noises in the absence of net charge transport. Moreover, spin shot noise is closely related to the magnetic Rabi frequency and decoherence and would be a sensitive tool to measure them.     

Spin-to-charge conversion of mesoscopic spin currents

Recent theoretical investigations have shown that spin currents can be generated by passing electric currents through spin-orbit coupled mesoscopic systems. Measuring these spin currents has, however, not been achieved to date. We show how mesoscopic spin currents in lateral heterostructures can be measured with a single-channel voltage probe. In the presence of a spin current, the charge current I(qpc) through the quantum point contact connecting the probe is odd in an externally applied Zeeman field B, while it is even in the absence of spin current. Furthermore, the zero-field derivative ?(B)I(qpc) is proportional to the magnitude of the spin current, with a proportionality coefficient that can be determined in an independent measurement. We confirm these findings numerically.     

Quantum spin and charge pumping through double quantum dots with ferromagnetic leads

The pumping of electrons through double quantum dots (DQDs) attached to ferromagnetic leads have been theoretically investigated by using the nonequilibrium Green?s function method. It is found that an oscillating electric field applied to the quantum dot may give rise to the pumped charge and spin currents. In the case that both leads are ferromagnet, a pure spin current can be generated in the antiparallel magnetization configuration, where no net charge current exists. The possibility of manipulating the pumped spin current is explored by tuning the dot level and the ac field. By making use of various tunings, the magnitude and direction of the pumped spin current can be well controlled. For the case that only one lead is ferromagnetic, both of the charge and spin currents can be pumped and flow in opposite directions on the average. The control of the magnitude and direction of the pumped charge and spin currents is also discussed by means of the magnetic flux threading through the DQD ring.     

Dynamic spin-polarized shot noise in a quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic terminals under the perturbation of ac fields

We have investigated the shot noise in the mesoscopic system composed of a quantum dot (QD) coupled to ferromagnetic terminals under the perturbation of ac fields. The shot noise has been derived using the nonequilibrium Green's function (NGF) technique to describe the spin polarization effect along with photon absorption and emission processes in the Coulomb blockade regime. We have examined the influence of spin polarization on the shot noise under the perturbation of ac fields in the nonadiabatic regime. The Coulomb blockade effect results in the modification of shot noise compared with the noninteracting case. The spin orientation contributes a spin valve effect for controlling electron tunnelling through this QD, and different resonant forms appear around the Coulomb blockade channel. The photon-assisted spin-splitting and spin-polarization effect contributes a photon-assisted spin valve to adjust the electron tunnelling current and shot noise. The spin-polarization effect varies the value of the Fano factor. However, it does not change the noise type from sub-Poissonian to super-Poissonian.     

Non-equilibrium spin accumulation in ferromagnetic single-electron transistors

We study transport in ferromagnetic single-electron transistors. The non-equilibrium spin accumulation on the island caused by a finite current through the system is described by a generalized theory of the Coulomb blockade. It enhances the tunnel magnetoresistance and has a drastic effect on the time-dependent transport properties. A transient decay of the spin accumulation may reverse the electric current on time scales of the order of the spin-flip relaxation time. This can be used as an experimental signature of the non-equilibrium spin accumulation. Received 6 May 1998