Towards a dephasing diode: asymmetric and geometric dephasing

Abstract

We study the effect of a noisy environment on spin and charge transport in ballistic quantum wires with spin-orbit coupling (Rashba coupling). We find that the wire then acts as a ``dephasing diode'', inducing very different dephasing of the spins of right and left movers. We also show how Berry phase (geometric phase) in a curved wire can induce such asymmetric dephasing, in addition to purely geometric dephasing. We propose ways to measure these effects through spin detectors, spin-echo techniques, and Aharanov-Bohm interferometry.

4 pages (2 fig) v2: extensive improvements to "readability" & references added

References in corpus (3)

• Observation of Berry's Phase in a Solid State Qubit
• Geometric nature of the environment-induced Berry phase and geometric dephasing
• Controlling Spin Qubits in Quantum Dots