Intersubband-induced spin-orbit interaction in quantum wells

Abstract

Recently, we have found an additional spin-orbit (SO) interaction in quantum wells with two subbands [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 076603 (2007)]. This new SO term is non-zero even in symmetric geometries, as it arises from the intersubband coupling between confined states of distinct parities, and its strength is comparable to that of the ordinary Rashba. Starting from the $8\times 8$ Kane model, here we present a detailed derivation of this new SO Hamiltonian and the corresponding SO coupling. In addition, within the self-consistent Hartree approximation, we calculate the strength of this new SO coupling for realistic symmetric modulation-doped wells with two subbands. We consider gated structures with either a constant areal electron density or a constant chemical potential. In the parameter range studied, both models give similar results. By considering the effects of an external applied bias, which breaks the structural inversion symmetry of the wells, we also calculate the strength of the resulting induced Rashba couplings within each subband. Interestingly, we find that for double wells the Rashba couplings for the first and second subbands interchange signs abruptly across the zero bias, while the intersubband SO coupling exhibits a resonant behavior near this symmetric configuration. For completeness we also determine the strength of the Dresselhaus couplings and find them essentially constant as function of the applied bias.

16 pages, 12 figures

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• Persistent Skyrmion Lattice of Noninteracting Electrons with Spin-Orbit Coupling
• Energy spectra for quantum wires and 2DEGs in magnetic fields with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions
• Spin-orbit coupling in wurtzite quantum wells
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• Spin drift and diffusion in one- and two-subband helical systems
• Renormalization of anticrossings in interacting quantum wires with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings
• Macroscopic transverse drift of long current-induced spin coherence in two-dimensional electron gases
• Spin Hall effect due to intersubband-induced spin-orbit interaction in symmetric quantum wells
• Gate control of the spin mobility through the modification of the spin-orbit interaction in two-dimensional systems
• Tunable spin-orbit coupling in two-dimensional InSe
• Blurring the boundaries between topological and non-topological phenomena in dots
• An all electron topological insulator in InAs double wells
• Rashba spin orbit interaction in a quantum wire superlattice
• Spin filtering effect generated by the inter-subband spin-orbit coupling in the bilayer nanowire with the quantum point contact
• Conductance of fractional Luttinger liquids at finite temperatures
• Interplay between resonant tunneling and spin precession oscillations in all-electric all-semiconductor spin transistors
• Electrical control of spin relaxation anisotropy during drift transport in a two-dimensional electron gas
• Giant edge spin accumulation in a symmetric quantum well with two subbands
• Spin drift-diffusion for two-subband quantum wells
• Ballistic spin resonance in multisubband quantum wires
• Spin-orbit excitations of quantum wells
• Electron density effect on spin-orbit interaction in [001] GaAs quantum wells
• Dual topological insulator with mirror symmetry protected helical edge states
• Charge-Spin Conversion in Two-Subband Quantum Wells with Conventional and Unconventional Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling
• Monte Carlo Simulations of Spin Transport in a Strained Nanoscale InGaAs Field Effect Transistor
• Spin relaxation in a zinc-blende (110) symmetric quantum well with delta-doping
• Effects of scattering area shape on spin conductance in a four-terminal spin-Hall setup
• Numerical analysis of the spin-orbit coupling parameters in III-V quantum wells using 8-band Kane model and finite-difference method
• Efficient Control of the Rashba Effective Magnetic Field Using Acceptor Doped Quantum Wells
• Coulomb-induced Rashba spin-orbit coupling in semiconductor quantum wells