Spin-orbit interactions in semiconductor superlattice

The purpose of this paper is to theoretically investigate the spin-orbit interactions of common semiconductor superlattices. Spin splitting and spin-orbit interaction coefficients are calculated based on interactions between the interface-related-Rashba effect and Dresselhaus effect. Semiconductor superlattice shows a series of specific characteristics in spin splitting as follows. The spin splitting of the superlattice structure is greater than that of a single quantum well, contributing to significant spin polarization, spin filtering, and convenient manipulation of spintronic devices. The spin splitting of some superlattice structures does not change with variation of the size of some constituent quantum wells, reducing the requirements for accuracy in the size of quantum wells. The total spin splitting of lower sub-levels of some superlattice can be designed to be zero, realizing a persistent spin helix effect and long spin relaxation time, however, the total spin splitting of higher sub-levels is still appreciable, contributing to desirable spin polarization. These results demonstrate that one superlattice structure can realize two functions, acting as a spin field effect transistor and a spin filter.     

Observation of spin-selective tunneling in SiGe nanocrystals

Spin-selective tunneling of holes in SiGe nanocrystals contacted by normal-metal leads is reported. The spin selectivity arises from an interplay of the orbital effect of the magnetic field with the strong spin-orbit interaction present in the valence band of the semiconductor. We demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically that spin-selective tunneling in semiconductor nanostructures can be achieved without the use of ferromagnetic contacts. The reported effect, which relies on mixing the light and heavy holes, should be observable in a broad class of quantum-dot systems formed in semiconductors with a degenerate valence band.     

半导体中自旋轨道耦合及自旋霍尔效应

本文主要评述和介绍半导体微结构中自旋轨道耦合的研究和最近的研究进展。我们细致地讨论了半导体微结构中自旋轨道耦合的物理起源和窄带隙半导体量子阱中的自旋霍尔效应。我们发现目前国际上广泛采用的线性Rashba模型在较大的电子平面波矢处失效:即自旋轨道耦合导致的能带自旋劈裂不再随电子波矢的增加而增加,而是开始下降,即出现强烈的非线性行为。这种非线性的行为起源于导带和价带间耦合的减弱。这种非线性行为还会导致电子的D’yakonov-Perel’自旋弛豫速率在较高能量处下降,与线性模型的结果完全相反。在此基础上,我们构造统一描述电子和空穴自旋霍尔效应的理论框架。我们的方法可以非微扰地计入自旋轨道耦合对本征自旋霍尔效应的影响。我们将此方法应用于强自旋轨道耦合的情形,即窄带隙CdHgTe/CdTe半导体量子阱。我们发现调节外电场或量子阱的阱宽可以作为导致量子相变和本征自旋霍尔效应的开关。我们的工作可能会为区别和实验验证本征自旋霍尔效应提供物理基础。     

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.     

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 edge states in two-dimensional electron systems in the presence of Zeeman effect

We study the spin edge states, induced by the combined effect of Bychkov-Rashba spinorbit and Zeeman interactions or of Dresselhaus spin-orbit and Zeeman interactions in a twodimensional electron system, exposed to a perpendicular quantizing magnetic field and restricted by a hard-wall confining potential. We derive an exact analytical formula for the dispersion relations of spin edge states and analyze their energy spectrum versus the momentum and the magnetic field. We calculate the average spin components and the average transverse position of electron. It is shown that by removing the spin degeneracy, spin-orbit interaction splits the spin edge states not only in the energy but also induces their spatial separation. Depending on the type of spin-orbit coupling and the principal quantum number, the Zeeman term in the combination with spin-orbit interaction increases or decreases essentially the splitting of bulk Landau levels while it has a weak influence on the spin edge states.     

Magnetoresistance due to edge spin accumulation

Because of spin-orbit interaction, an electrical current is accompanied by a spin current resulting in spin accumulation near the sample edges. Due again to spin-orbit interaction this causes a small decrease of the sample resistance. An applied magnetic field will destroy the edge spin polarization leading to a positive magnetoresistance. This effect provides means to study spin accumulation by electrical measurements. The origin and the general properties of the phenomenological equations describing coupling between charge and spin currents are also discussed.     

自旋轨道耦合和磁场对准一维铁磁/半导体/铁磁系统中电子输运性质的影响

利用传递矩阵方法，我们计算了自旋轨道耦合和磁场对准一维铁磁/半导体/铁磁系统中电子输运性质的影响。计算结果发现，透射系数的振幅随磁场增加而增大。在反铁磁排列时，即使在磁场作用下，上、下自旋电子具有相同的透射系数。与不加磁场时的情况相反，在一定的磁场和耦合强度时，铁磁排列中，上自旋电子的透射系数大于下自旋电子的，而且出现了自旋反转。     

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.     

Proposal for direct measurement of a pure spin current by a polarized light beam

The photon helicity may be mapped to a spin-1/2, whereby we put forward an intrinsic interaction between a polarized light beam as a "photon spin current" and a pure spin current in a semiconductor, which arises from the spin-orbit coupling in valence bands as a pure relativity effect without involving the Rashba or the Dresselhaus effect due to inversion asymmetries. The interaction leads to linear and circular optical birefringence, which are similar to the Voigt effect and the Faraday rotation in magneto-optics but nevertheless involve no net magnetization. The birefringence effects provide a direct, nondemolition measurement of pure spin currents.     

Universal intrinsic spin Hall effect

We describe a new effect in semiconductor spintronics that leads to dissipationless spin currents in paramagnetic spin-orbit coupled systems. We argue that in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system with substantial Rashba spin-orbit coupling, a spin current that flows perpendicular to the charge current is intrinsic. In the usual case where both spin-orbit split bands are occupied, the intrinsic spin-Hall conductivity has a universal value for zero quasiparticle spectral broadening.     

Charge current driven by spin dynamics in disordered Rashba spin-orbit system

Pumping of charge current by spin dynamics in the presence of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction is theoretically studied. Considering a disordered electron, the exchange coupling and spin-orbit interactions are treated perturbatively. It is found that the dominant current induced by spin dynamics is interpreted as a consequence of the conversion from spin current via the inverse spin Hall effect. We also find that the current has an additional component from a fictitious conservative field. The results are applied to the case of a moving domain wall.     

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.     

Room-temperature reversible spin Hall effect

Reversible spin Hall effect comprising the direct and inverse spin Hall effects was electrically detected at room temperature. A platinum wire with a strong spin-orbit interaction is used not only as a spin current absorber but also as a spin-current source in the specially designed lateral structure. The obtained spin Hall conductivities are 2.4 x 10(4) (Omega m)(-1) at room temperature, 10(4) times larger than the previously reported values of semiconductor systems. Spin Hall conductivities obtained from both the direct and inverse spin Hall effects are experimentally confirmed to be the same, demonstrating the Onsager reciprocal relations between spin and charge currents.     

Spin dynamics and spin noise in the presence of randomly varying spin-orbit interaction in a semiconductor quantum wire

Using ensemble Monte Carlo simulation, we have studied hot carrier spin dynamics and spin noise in a multi-subband GaAs quantum wire in the presence of a randomly varying Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The random variation reduces the carrier ensemble's spin dephasing time due to the D'yakonov-Perel' mechanism, but otherwise makes no qualitative difference to the temporal spin relaxation characteristics. However, it makes a qualitative difference to the spatial spin relaxation characteristics which change from monotonic and smooth to non-monotonic and chaotic because of a complex interplay between carriers in different subbands. As far as spin fluctuation and spin noise are concerned, the random variation has no major effect except that the low-frequency noise power spectral density increases slightly when the magnitude of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction field is varied randomly while holding the direction constant.     

Spin polarization in parallel double dots with spin-orbit interaction

Spin polarization in parallel double quantum dots embedded in arms of Aharonov-Bohm interferometer is investigated. The spin-orbit interaction exists in quantum dots. We find that the spin polarization is quite large even with a weak spin-orbit interaction. The direction and the strength of the spin polarization are well controllable and manipulatable by simply varying the strength of spin-orbit interaction or the energy levels in quantum dots. Moreover, electron-electron interaction strengthens the spin accumulation when the energy levels of the two quantum dots are identical. As the energy levels are unequal, electron-electron interaction cannot increase the spin accumulation. It is worth mentioning that the device is free of a magnetic field or a ferromagnetic material and it can be easily realized with present technology.     

Spin edge states in two-dimensional electron systems

We consider the spin edge states, induced by the combined effect of spin-orbit interaction and hard-wall confining potential, in a two-dimensional electron system exposed to a perpendicular quantizing magnetic field. We derive an exact analytical formula for the dispersion relations of spin edge states and analyze their energy spectrum, velocity, and average transverse position. It is shown that by removing the spin degeneracy, spin-orbit interaction splits the spin edge states not only in the energy but also induces their spatial separation. It is revealed that at low magnetic fields, due to the Stark splitting of the spin-resolved edge states, the high-energy bands exhibit anti-crossings. This results in an additional structure in the behavior of the velocity of current-carrying edge states.     

Generation of spin currents and spin densities in systems with reduced symmetry

We show that the spin-current response of a semiconductor crystal to an external electric field is considerably more complex than previously assumed. While in systems of high symmetry only the spin-Hall components are allowed, in systems of lower symmetry other non-spin-Hall components may be present. We argue that, when spin-orbit interactions are present only in the band structure, the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic contributions to the spin current is not useful. We show that the generation of spin currents and that of spin densities in an electric field are closely related, and that our general theory provides a systematic way to distinguish between them in experiment. We discuss also the meaning of vertex corrections in systems with spin-orbit interactions.     

Ballistic transport through a sharp domain wall in a semiconducting ferromagnetic nanoconstriction and in the presence of the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling

We study the effect of the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction on the magnetoresistance (MR) of a quasi-one-dimensional ferromagnetic semiconductor containing a sharp domain wall. The MR is calculated in the ballistic regime, within the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. The results show that the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling which induces an effective magnetic field along the wire, reduces the domain wall MR.