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.     

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 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.     

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.     

Rashba coupling induced spin accumulation in two-dimensional domain wall

Non-equilibrium spin accumulation in two-dimensional domain wall (DW) in the presence of external electric field and Rashba type spin-orbit coupling within the Boltzmann semi-classical model is investigated. Transport and relaxation of spin polarized current in the DW is governed by spin-flip rates which are determined by the Rashba interaction and magnetic impurities. Numerical results show that at low impurity densities and nonadiabatic transport regimes, the Rashba interaction significantly enhances spin polarization of conduction electrons inside the DW.     

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.     

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.     

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。     

Theory of spin noise in nanowires

We develop a theory of spin noise in semiconductor nanowires considered as prospective elements for spintronics. In these structures, spin-orbit coupling can be realized as a random function of a coordinate correlated on a spatial scale of the order of 10?nm. By analyzing different regimes of electron transport and spin dynamics, we demonstrate that the spin relaxation can be very slow, and the resulting noise power spectrum increases algebraically as the frequency goes to zero. This effect makes spin phenomena in nanowires best suitable for studies by rapidly developing spin-noise spectroscopy.     

Spin relaxation and decoherence of holes in quantum dots

We investigate heavy-hole spin relaxation and decoherence in quantum dots in perpendicular magnetic fields. We show that at low temperatures the spin decoherence time is 2 times longer than the spin relaxation time. We find that the spin relaxation time for heavy holes can be comparable to or even longer than that for electrons in strongly two-dimensional quantum dots. We discuss the difference in the magnetic-field dependence of the spin relaxation rate due to Rashba or Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling for systems with positive (i.e., GaAs quantum dots) or negative (i.e., InAs quantum dots) g factor.     

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.     

Effects of inversion asymmetry on electron-nuclear spin coupling in semiconductor heterostructures: possible role of spin-orbit interactions

We show that electron-nuclear spin coupling in semiconductor heterostructures is strongly modified by their potential inversion asymmetry. This is demonstrated in a GaAs quantum well, where we observe that the current-induced nuclear spin polarization at Landau-level filling factor nu=2/3 is completely suppressed when the quantum well is made largely asymmetric with gate voltages. Furthermore, we find that the nuclear spin relaxation rate is also modified by the potential asymmetry. These findings strongly suggest that even a very weak Rashba spin-orbit interaction can play a dominant role in determining the electron-nuclear spin coupling.     

Effect of electric field and magnetic field on spin transport in bilayer graphene armchair nanoribbons: A Monte Carlo simulation study

In this article we study the effect of external magnetic field and electric field on spin transport in bilayer armchair graphene nanoribbons (GNR) by employing semiclassical Monte Carlo approach. We include D'yakonov-Perel' (DP) relaxation due to structural inversion asymmetry (Rashba spin-orbit coupling) and Elliott-Yafet (EY) relaxation to model spin dephasing. In the model we neglect the effect of local magnetic moments due to adatoms and vacancies. We have considered injection polarization along z-direction perpendicular to the plane of graphene and the magnitude of ensemble averaged spin variation is studied along the x-direction which is the transport direction. To the best of our knowledge there has been no theoretical investigation of the effects of external magnetic field on spin transport in graphene nanoribbons. This theoretical investigation is important in order to identify the factors responsible for experimentally observed spin relaxation length in graphene GNRs.     

半导体量子阱中电子自旋弛豫和动量弛豫

根据电子自旋轨道耦合对自旋极化弛豫影响的DP机理进一步导出了半导体中电子自旋弛豫与动量弛豫及载流子浓度的关系，并采用飞秒抽运探测技术在室温下测量AlGaAs/GaAs 多量子阱中载流子浓度在 1×10¹⁷—1×10¹⁸cm^-3范围内，电子自旋弛豫时间由58ps增加至82 ps的变化情况，与理论计算值符合，说明了随着载流子浓度的增加，载流子间的频繁散射加速了电子动量驰豫，减弱了电子自旋轨道耦合作用，从而延长了电子自旋寿命. 关键词： 电子自旋轨道耦合 电子自旋弛豫和动量弛豫 飞秒光谱技术     

Gate tunable Rashba spin-orbit coupling at CaZrO3/SrTiO3 heterointerface

High mobility quasi two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) found at the CaZrO₃/SrTiO₃ nonpolar heterointerface is attractive and provides a platform for the development of functional devices and nanoelectronics. Here we report that the carrier density and mobility at low temperature can be tuned by gate voltage at the CaZrO₃/SrTiO₃ interface. Furthermore, the magnitude of Rashba spin-orbit interaction can be modulated and increases with the gate voltage. Remarkably, the diffusion constant and the spin-orbit relaxation time can be strongly tuned by gate voltage. The diffusion constant increases by a factor of ～ 19.98 and the relaxation time is reduced by a factor of over three orders of magnitude while the gate voltage is swept from -50 V to 100 V. These findings not only lay a foundation for further understanding the underlying mechanism of Rashba spin-orbit coupling, but also have great significance in developing various oxide functional devices.     

Spin Hall effect on edge magnetization and electric conductance of a 2D semiconductor strip

The intrinsic spin Hall effect on spin accumulation and electric conductance in a diffusive regime of a 2D electron gas has been studied for a 2D strip of a finite width. It is shown that the spin polarization near the flanks of the strip, as well as the electric current in the longitudinal direction, exhibit damped oscillations as a function of the width and strength of the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction. Cubic terms of this interaction are crucial for spin accumulation near the edges. As expected, no effect on the spin accumulation and electric conductance have been found in case of Rashba spin-orbit interaction.     

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.     

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.     

Tuning of the Electron Spin Relaxation Anisotropy via Optical Gating in GaAs/AlGaAs Quantum Wells

The carrier-density-dependent spin relaxation dynamics for modulation-doped GaAs/Al_(0.3)Ga_(0.7)As quantum weiis is studied using the time-resolved magneto-Kerr rotation measurements.The electron spin relaxation time and its in-plane anisotropy are studied as a function of the optically injected electron density.Moreover,the relative strength of the Rashba and the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling fields,and thus the observed spin relaxation time anisotropy,is further tuned by the additional excitation of a 532 nm continuous wave laser,demonstrating an effective spin relaxation manipulation via an optical gating method.     

The effects of Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit interactions on the electron tunneling in a non-magnetic heterostructure

We theoretically investigate the electron transport properties in a non-magnetic heterostructure with both Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit interactions. The detailed-numerical results show that (1) the large spin polarization can be achieved due to Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit couplings induced splitting of the resonant level, although the magnetic field is zero in such a structure, (2) the Rashba spin-orbit coupling plays a greater role on the spin polarization than the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction does, and (3) the transmission probability and the spin polarization both periodically change with the increase of the well width.