Spin filtering in a nonuniform quantum wire with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

We investigate theoretically the spin-polarized electron transport for a wide-narrow-wide (WNW) quantum wire under the modulation of Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI). The influence of both the structure of the quantum wire and the interference between different pairs of subbands on the spin-polarized electron transport is taken into account simultaneously via the spin-resolved lattice Green function method. It is found that a very large vertical spin-polarized current can be generated by the SOI-induced effective magnetic field at the structure-induced Fano resonance even in the presence of strong disorder. Furthermore, the magnitude of the spin polarization can be tuned by the Rashba SOI strength and structural parameters. Those results may provide an effective way to design a spin filter device without containing any magnetic materials or applying a magnetic field.     

Electron-spin polarization in a non-magnetic heterostructure

The spin dependent electron transmission through a non-magnetic III-V semiconductor symmetric well is studied theoretically so as to investigate the output transmission current polarization at zero magnetic field. Transparency of electron transmission is calculated as a function of electron energy as well as the well width, within the one electron band approximation along with the spin-orbit interaction. Enhanced spin-polarized resonant tunneling in the heterostructure due to Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit coupling induced splitting of the resonant level is observed. We predict that a spin-polarized current spontaneously emerges in this heterostructure. This effect could be employed in the fabrication of spin filters, spin injectors and detectors based on non-magnetic semiconductors.     

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.     

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.     

Controllable Spin-Polarized Transport in a Three-Terminal Model

By means of the Keldysh Green's function method, we investigate the spin-polarized electron transport in a three-terminal device, which is composed of three normal metal leads and two serially-coupled quantum dots (QDs). The Rashba spin-orbit interaction (RSOI) is also considered in one of the QDs. We show that the spin-polarized charge current with arbitrary spin polarization can be obtained because of the quantum spin interference effect arising from the Rashba spin precession phase, and it can be modulated by the system parameters such as the applied external voltages, the RSOI strength, the QD levels, as well as the dot-lead coupling strengths. Moreover, a fully spin-polarized current or a pure spin current without any accompanying charge current can also be controlled to flow in the system. Our findings indicate that the proposed model can serve as an all-electrical spin device in spintronics field.     

Spin and charge transport in the presence of spin-orbit interaction

We present the study of spin and charge transport in nanostructures in the presence of spin-orbit (SO) interaction. Single band tight binding Hamiltonians for Elliot-Yafet and Rashba SO interaction are derived. Using these tight binding Hamiltonians and spin resolved Landauer-Büttiker formula, spin and charge transport is studied. Specifically numerical results are presented for a new method to perform magnetic scanning tunneling microscopy with non-magnetic tip but in the presence of Elliot-Yafet SO interaction. The spin relaxation phenomena in two-dimensional electron gas in the presence of Rashba SO interaction are studied and contrary to naive expectation, it is shown that disorder helps to reduce spin relaxation.     

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.     

电磁波辐照下量子线的电子自旋极化输运性质

理论上研究Rashba自旋-轨道相互作(SOI)量子线在外电磁波辐照下的电子自旋极化输运性质.在自由电子模型下利用散射矩阵方法,发现当Rashba SOI较弱时,自旋极化率与外电磁场频率和电子入射能量无关,而当Rashba SOI较强时,自旋极化率则强烈依赖于外场频率和电子入射能量,其物理根源是Rashba SOI使子带混合引起的.此外,当电子的入射能量增加到打开另一通道阈值时,电子的透射率出现一个反常的台阶结构,这来源于电子与光子的非弹性散射而使电子在子带间的跃迁. 关键词： 量子线 电磁波 自旋极化输运 散射矩阵     

Wave packet splitting and zitterbewegung in two-dimensional semiconductor structures with spin-orbit coupling

Dynamics of electron wave packets in an asymmetric quantum well in the presence of Rashba spinorbit coupling was analytically and numerically studied. Electron Green’s functions were introduced and the evolution of 1D and 2D wave packets was studied. The effect of packet splitting caused by the presence of two branches with different chiralities in the Rashba Hamiltonian spectrum and zitterbewegung, i.e., packet center’s jitter, was studied. Spatial components of the spin density were calculated. It was shown that the component of the spin density S _y in split parts of the wave packet has opposite signs, and two other spin density components oscillate in space between scattering packets.     

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.     

Charge transport through ferromagnet/two-dimensional electron gas/d-wave superconductor junctions with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Along the lines of Blonder, Tinkham and Klapwijk, we investigate the charge transport through ferromagnet/two-dimensional electronic gas/d-wave superconductor (F/2DEG/S) junctions in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling and focus our attention on the interplay between spin polarization and spin precession. At zero spin polarization, the spin-mixing scattering resulted from Rashba SO coupling decreases the zero-bias conductance peak. Under spin polarization, spin precession introduces novel Andreev reflection, which competes with the effect of spin-mixing scattering. If the F layer is a half metal, the later effect is overwhelmed by that of novel Andreev reflection. As a result, the zero-bias conductance dip caused by spin polarization is enhanced, and at strong Rashba SO coupling, a split zero-bias peak is found in the gap. In an intermediate region where the two effects are comparable with each other, the zero-bias conductance shows a reentrant behavior as a function of Rashba SO coupling.     

Spin-polarized transport in adiabatic quantum point contact with strong Rashba spin-orbit interaction

We first report 0.5(2e²/h) conductance quantization in adiabatic quantum point contacts (QPCs) fabricated at high In-content InGaAs/InAlAs single heterojunctions under no magnetic field. This quantization seems difficult to understand, since the spin one-dimensional (1D) subbands in the QPCs are generally degenerated when B=0. However, this observation is reproducible in various QPC samples with different dimensions but not likely so definite as the conductance quantization in usual QPCs. It is noted that this particular heterojunction 2DEG is found to have high electron mobility of <5×10⁵ cm²/Vs as well as very large Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling constant of <35×10⁻¹² eVm. So that, the QPCs realized here can be regarded as a kind of Tomonaga-Luttinger wire with an enhanced Rashba interaction. In such a case, a mode coupling between the Rashba splitting 1D subbands gives rise to a spin-polarized transport in each ±k direction. This theory could be the one plausible candidate to explain the 0.5(2e²/h) conductance quantization observed here in the adiabatic QPC. This finding would be developed to novel spin-filters or spin-directional coupler devices based on nonmagnetic semiconductors.     

Spin-Orbit Splitting in Semiconductor Quantum Dots with a Two-Dimensional Ring Model

We present a theoretical study of the energy levels with two-dimensional ring confining potential in the presence of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The features of some low-lying states in various strengths of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction are investigated. The Rashba spin-orbit splitting can a/so be influenced by the width of the potential barrier. The computed results show that the spin-polarized electronic states can be more easily achieved in a weakly confined dot when the confinement strength for the Rashba spin-orbit interaction is larger than a critical value.     

Spin-filtering and charge- and spin-switching effects in a quantum wire with periodically attached stubs

Spin-dependent electron transport in a periodically stubbed quantum wire in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) is studied via the nonequilibrium Green’s function (GF) method combined with the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. By comparing with a straight Rashba quantum wire, the magnitude of spin conductance can be enhanced obviously. In addition, the charge and spin switching can also be found in the considered system. The mechanism of these transport properties is revealed by analyzing the total charge density and spin-polarized density distributions in the stubbed quantum wire. Furthermore, periodic spin-density islands with high polarization are also found inside the stubs, owing to the interaction between the charge density islands and the Rashba SOI-induced effective magnetic field. These interesting findings may be useful in further understanding of the transport properties of low-dimensional systems and in devising an all-electrical multifunctional spintronic device based on the proposed structure.     

A tunable spatial spin splitter based on a spin–orbit-coupling modulated magnetic nanostructure

We investigate theoretically the spin-dependent Goos–Hänchen (GH) effect in a magnetic nanostructure modulated by spin–orbit coupling (SOC), which can be experimentally realized by depositing a ferromagnetic (FM) stripe and a Schottky-metal (SM) stripe on the top and bottom of an InAs/Al_xIn_1?xAs heterostructure, respectively. We consider two kinds of different SOCs (Rashba and Dresselhaus types), and calculate the GH shift and its spin polarization for the electrons across the device. Results show that the GH shift still is spin-polarized after including the SOC, and the behavior of the spin-polarized electrons can be manipulated by the Rashba and/or Dresselhaus SOC. These interesting properties provide an alternative scheme for spatially realizing spin injection into a semiconductor, and the magnetic nanostructure can be employed as a controllable spatial spin splitter for a spin-polarized source in spintronics.     

Production of Fe clusters by collisions of metal vapour with supersonic argon beams

For a spin-polarized plane wave passing through a spin-rotator containing uniform magnetic field, we provide a detailed analysis for solving the appropriate Schrödinger equation. A modified expression for spin precession is obtained which reduces to the standard Larmor precession relation when kinetic energy is very large compared to the spin-magnetic field interaction. We show that there are experimentally verifiable regimes of departure from the standard Larmor precession formula. The treatment is then extended to the case of a spin-polarized wave packet passing through a uniform magnetic field. The results based on the standard expression for Larmor precession and that obtained from the modified formula are compared in various regimes of the experimental parameters.     

Electrically controllable spin transport in bilayer graphene with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

We study the spin transport in bilayer graphene nanoribbons (BGNs) in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) and external gate voltages. It is found that the spin polarization can be significantly enhanced by the interlayer asymmetry or longitudinal mirror asymmetry produced by external gate voltages. Rashba SOI alone in BGNs can only generate current with spin polarization along the in-plane y direction, but the polarization components can be found along the x, y and z directions when a gate voltage is applied. High spin polarization with flexible orientation is obtained in the proposed device. Our findings shed new light on the generation of highly spin-polarized current in BGNs without external magnetic fields, which could have useful applications in spintronics device design.     

Mesoscopic Fano effect modulated by Rashba spin–orbit coupling and external magnetic field

By employing non-equilibrium Green's function method, the mesoscopic Fano effect modulated by Rashba spin–orbit (SO) coupling and external magnetic field has been elucidated for electron transport through a hybrid system composed of a quantum dot (QD) and an Aharonov–Bohm (AB) ring. The results show that the orientation of the Fano line shape is modulated by the Rashba spin–orbit interaction kRL$k_{R}L$ variation, which reveals that the Fano parameter q will be extended to a complex number, although the system maintains time-reversal symmetry (TRS) under the Rashba SO interaction. Furthermore, it is shown that the modulation of the external magnetic field, which is applied not only inside the frame, but also on the QD, leads to the Fano resonance split due to Zeeman effect, which indicates that the hybrid is an ideal candidate for the spin readout device.     

Spin precession and electron spin polarization wave in [001]-grown quantum wells

We theoretically study the spatial behaviors of spin precessions modulated by an effective magnetic field in a two-dimensional electron system with spin-orbit interaction. Through analysis of interaction between the spin and the effective magnetic field, we find some laws of spin precession in the system, by which we explain some previous phenomena of spin precession, and predict a controllable electron spin polarization wave in [001]-grown quantum wells. The shape of the wave, like water wave, mostly are ellipse-like or circle-like, and the wavelength is anisotropic in the quantum wells with two unequal coupling strengths of the Rashba and Dresselhaus interactions, and is isotropic in the quantum wells with only one spin orbit interaction.