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.     

Spin Splitting in Different Semiconductor Quantum Wells

We theoretically investigate the spin splitting in four undoped asymmetric quantum wells in the absence of external electric field and magnetic field. The quantum well geometry dependence of spin splitting is studied with the Rashba and the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling included. The results show that the structure of quantum well plays an important role in spin splitting. The Rashba and the Dresselhaus spin splitting in four asymmetric quantum wells are quite different. The origin of the distinction is discussed in this work.     

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.     

Spin-orbit interaction in coupled quantum wells

We theoretically investigate the spin-orbit interaction in GaAs/AlxGa1 x As coupled quantum wells. We consider the contribution of the interface-related Rashba term as well as the linear and cubic Dresselhaus terms to the spin splitting. For the coupled quantum wells which bear an inherent structure inversion asymmetry, the same probability density distribution of electrons in the two step quantum wells results in a large spin splitting from the interface term. If the widths of the two step quantum wells are different, the electron probability density in the wider step quantum well is considerably higher than that in the narrower one, resulting in the decrease of the spin splitting from the interface term. The results also show that the spin splitting of the coupled quantum well is not significantly larger than that of a step quantum well.     

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.     

Spin-dependent electron transport in a nonmagnetic nanostructure with both Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit terms

The spin-dependent electron transport is numerically studied in a nonmagnetic nanostructure in the presence of both Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit interactions. It is shown that the large spin polarization can be achieved in such a structure mainly due to the Rashba spin-orbit term induced splitting of the resonant level. It is also shown that the spin polarization strongly depends on the well width and the thickness of the middle barrier as well as the height of the middle barrier.     

HgTe/HgCdTe量子阱中巨大电子Rashba自旋分裂

主要研究具有倒置能带结构的n-HgTe/HgCdTe第三类量子阱Shubnikov-de Haas（SdH）振荡中的拍频现象.发现在量子阱中电子存在强烈的Rashba自旋分裂，通过对SdH振荡进行三种不同方法的分析：SdH振荡对1/B关系的快速傅里叶变换、SdH振荡中拍频节点分析和对SdH振荡拍频数值拟合，得到了完全一致的电子Rashba自旋分裂能量（28—36 meV）. 关键词： n-HgTe/HgCdTe Shubnikov-de Haas振荡 Rashba自旋分裂     

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。     

Anisotropic Spin Splitting in Step Quantum Wells

By the method of finite difference, the anisotropic spin splitting of the AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs/Aly Ga1-yAs/AlxGal-xAs step quantum wells （QWs） are theoretically investigated considering the interplay of the bulk inversion asymmetry and structure inversion asymmetry induced by step quantum well structure and external electric field. We demonstrate that the anisotropy of the total spin splitting can be controlled by the shape of the QWs and the external electric field. The interface related Rashba effect plays an important effect on the anisotropic spin splitting by influencing the magnitude of the spin splitting and the direction of electron spin. The Rashba spin splitting presents in the step quantum wells due to the interface related Rashba effect even without external electric field or magnetic field.     

Intersubband spin-orbit coupling and spin splitting in symmetric quantum wells

In semiconductors with inversion asymmetry, spin-orbit coupling gives rise to the well-known Dresselhaus and Rashba effects. If one considers quantum wells with two or more conduction subbands, an additional, intersubband-induced spin-orbit term appears whose strength is comparable to the Rashba coupling, and which remains finite for symmetric structures. We show that the conduction band spin splitting due to this intersubband spin-orbit coupling term is negligible for typical III-V quantum wells.     

Particular nanowire superlattice as a spin filter

A nanowire superlattice of InAs and GaAs layers with In_0.47Ga_0.53As as the impure layers is proposed. The oft-neglected k³ Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling causes the spin polarization of the electron but often can produce a limited spin polarization. In this nanowire superlattice, Dresselhaus term produce complete spin filtering by optimizing the distance between the In_0.47Ga_0.53As layers and the Indium (In) in the impure layers. The proposed structure is an optimized nanowire superlattice that can efficiently filter any component of electron spins according to its energy. In fact, this nanowire superlattice is an energy dependent spin filter structure.     

Efficient spin filtering in a disordered semiconductor superlattice in the presence of Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling

The influence of the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling on spin polarization by tunneling through a disordered semiconductor superlattice was investigated. The Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling causes the spin polarization of the electron due to transmission possibilities difference between spin up and spin down electrons. The electron tunneling through a zinc-blende semiconductor superlattice with InAs and GaAs layers and two variable distance In_xGa_(1−x)As impurity layers was studied. One hundred percent spin polarization was obtained by optimizing the distance between two impurity layers and impurity percent in disordered layers in the presence of Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling. In addition, the electron transmission probability through the mentioned superlattice is too much near to one and an efficient spin filtering was recommended.     

Magnetic Properties of A Cavity-Embedded Square Lattice of Quantum Dots or Antidots

Quantum electrodynamical density functional theory is applied to obtain the electronic density, spin polarization, as well as orbital and spin magnetizations of square periodic arrays of quantum dots or antidots subjected to the influence of a far-infrared cavity photon field. A gradient-based exchange-correlation functional adapted to a 2D electron gas in a transverse homogeneous magnetic field is used in the theoretical framework and calculations. The obtained results predict a non-trivial effect of the cavity field on the electron distribution in the unit cell of the superlattice, as well as on the orbital and spin magnetizations. The number of electrons per unit cell of the superlattice is shown to play a crucial role in the modification of the magnetization via the electron–photon coupling. The calculations show that cavity photons strengthen the diamagnetic effect in the quantum dot structure, while they weaken the paramagnetic effect in the antidot structure. As the number of electrons per unit cell of the lattice increases, the electron–photon interaction reduces the exchange forces that will otherwise promote strong spin splitting for both the dot and the antidot arrays.     

Spin-orbit coupling and anisotropy of spin splitting in quantum dots

In lateral quantum dots, the combined effect of both Dresselhaus and Bychkov-Rashba spin-orbit coupling is equivalent to an effective magnetic field +/- B(SO) which has the opposite sign for s(z)= +/- 1/2 spin electrons. When the external magnetic field is perpendicular to the planar structure, the field B(SO) generates an additional splitting for electron states as compared to the spin splitting in the in-plane field orientation. The anisotropy of spin splitting has been measured and then analyzed in terms of spin-orbit coupling in several AlGaAs/GaAs quantum dots by means of resonant tunneling spectroscopy. From the measured values and sign of the anisotropy we are able to determine the dominating spin-orbit coupling mechanism.     

Anisotropic property in interacting quantum wires embedded in (110) plane

We investigate the theoretically combined effect of spin-orbit interactions and Coulomb interaction on the ground state and transport property of a quantum wire oriented along different crystallographic directions in the (110) plane. We find that the electron’s ground state exhibits phase transition among spin density wave, charge density wave, singlet superconductivity and metamagnetism, which can be controlled by changing the crystallographic orientation, the strengths of the spin-orbit interactions and the Coulomb interaction. The ac conductance exhibits a significant anisotropic behavior and a out-of-plane spin polarization which can be tuned by an in-plane electric field.     

Acoustically induced spin-orbit interactions revealed by two-dimensional imaging of spin transport in GaAs

Magneto-optic Kerr microscopy was employed to investigate the spin-orbit interactions of electrons traveling in semiconductor quantum wells using surface acoustic waves (SAWs). Two-dimensional images of the spin flow induced by SAWs exhibit anisotropic spin precession behaviors caused by the coexistence of different types of spin-orbit interactions. The dependence of spin-orbit effective magnetic fields on SAW intensity indicates the existence of acoustically controllable spin-orbit interactions resulting from the strain and Rashba contributions induced by the SAWs.     

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.     

Hanle effect driven by weak localization

The influence of weak localization on the Hanle effect in a two-dimensional system with a spin-split spectrum is considered. We show that weak localization drastically changes the dependence of a stationary spin polarization S on an external magnetic field B. In particular, the nonanalytic dependence of S on B is predicted for III-V-based quantum wells grown in the [110] direction and for the [100]-grown quantum wells having equal strengths of Dresselhaus and Bychkov-Rashba spin-orbit coupling. It is shown that in a weakly localized regime the components of S are discontinuous at B = 0. At low B, the magnetic field-induced rotation of the stationary polarization is determined by quantum interference effects. This implies that the Hanle effect in such systems is totally driven by weak localization.     

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.     

Anderson Localization Enhanced Spin Selective Transport of Electrons in DNA

Recent experiments revealed the unusual strong spin effects with high spin selective transmission of electrons in double-stranded DNA. We propose a new mechanism that the strong spin effects could be understood in terms of the combination of the ehiral structure, spin-orbit coupling, and especially spin-dependent Anderson localization. The presence of chiral structure and spin-orbit coupling of DNA induce weak Fermi energy splitting between two spin polarization states. The intrinsic Anderson localization in generic DNA molecules may result in remarkable enhancement of the spin selective transport. In particular, these two spin states with energy splitting have different localization lengths. Spin up/down channel may have shorter/longer localization length so that relatively less/more spin up/down electrons may tunnel through the system. In addition, the strong length dependence of spin selectivity observed in experiments can be naturally understood. Anderson localization enhanced spin selectivity effect may provide a deeper understanding of spin-selective processes in molecular spintronics and biological systems.