Regensburg 2002 – scientific programme

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HL: Halbleiterphysik

HL 29: Spinabh
ängiger Transport

HL 29.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 15:45–16:00, H13

Quantum Wire with Strong Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling — •Ulrich Zülicke and Michele Governale — Institut für Theoretische Festkörperphysik,Universität Karlsruhe, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany

Spin-dependent effects that are naturally present in semiconductors are of great importance for the emerging field of spintronics. An example is Rashba spin-orbit coupling [1], which has recently attracted much attention as it is the basis of a spin-controlled field-effect transistor [2]. We present analytical and numerical results for the effect of Rashba spin-orbit coupling on band structure, transport, and interaction effects in quantum wires when the spin precession length is comparable to the wire width. In contrast to the weak-coupling case, no common spin-quantization axis can be defined for eigenstates within a single-electron band. The situation with only the lowest spin-split subbands occupied is particularly interesting because electrons close to Fermi points of the same chirality can have approximately parallel spins. We discuss consequences for spin-dependent transport and effective Tomonaga–Luttinger descriptions of interactions in the quantum wire.

[1] E. I. Rashba, Fiz. Tverd. Tela (Leningrad) 2, 1224 (1960), [Sov. Phys. Solid State 2, 1109 (1960)].

[2] S. Datta, and B. Das, Appl. Phys. Lett. 56, 665 (1990).