Spin-polarized electric currents in quantum transport through tubular two-dimensional electron gases

Abstract

Scattering theory is employed to derive a Landauer-type formula for the spin and the charge currents, through a finite region where spin-orbit interactions are effective. It is shown that the transmission matrix yields the spatial direction and the magnitude of the spin polarization. This formula is used to study the currents through a tubular two-dimensional electron gas. In this cylindrical geometry, which may be realized in experiment, the transverse conduction channels are not mixed (provided that the spin-orbit coupling is uniform). It is then found that for modest boundary scattering, each step in the quantized conductance is split into two, and the new steps have a non-zero spin conductance, with the spin polarization perpendicular to the direction of the current.

6 pages, 5 figures

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• Thermoelectric effects in graphene with local spin-orbit interaction
• Multichannel effects in Rashba quantum wires
• Spin filtering in a Rashba-Dresselhaus-Aharonov-Bohm double-dot interferometer
• Evidence of Spin-Filtering in Quantum Constrictions with Spin-Orbit Interaction
• Simple spin-orbit based devices for electron spin polarization
• Spin geometric-phases in hopping magnetoconductance
• Spin-current quantization in a quantum point contact with spin-orbit interaction
• Spin-filtering in a $p$-orbital helical atomic chain
• Conductance oscillations of a spin-orbit stripe with polarized contacts
• Spin-polarized transport in helical membranes due to spin-orbit coupling
• All-electrical manipulation of electron spin by the spin-orbit interaction in a semiconductor nanotube: analytical results
• Curvature induced out of plane spin accumulation
• Detection of spin injection into a double quantum dot: Violation of magnetic-field-inversion symmetry of nuclear polarization instabilities
• Spin-polarized dynamic transport in tubular two-dimensional electron gases