Transport through a band insulator with Rashba spin-orbit coupling: metal-insulator transition and spin-filtering effects

Abstract

We calculate the current-voltage characteristic of a one-dimensional band insulator with magnetic field and Rashba spin-orbit coupling which is connected to nonmagnetic leads. Without spin-orbit coupling we find a complete spin-filtering effect, meaning that the electric transport occurs in one spin channel only. For a large magnetic field which closes the band gap, we show that spin-orbit coupling leads to a transition from metallic to insulating behavior. The oscillations of the different spin-components of the current with the length of the transport channel are studied as well.

References in corpus (9)

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• Electric and Magnetic Gating of Rashba-Active Weak Links
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• Spin-filtering and charge- and spin-switching effects in a quantum wire with periodically attached stubs