Rashba spin orbit interaction in a quantum wire superlattice

Abstract

In this work we study the effects of a longitudinal periodic potential on a parabolic quantum wire defined in a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction. For an infinite wire superlattice we find, by direct diagonalization, that the energy gaps are shifted away from the usual Bragg planes due to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Interestingly, our results show that the location of the band gaps in energy can be controlled via the strength of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. We have also calculated the charge conductance through a periodic potential of a finite length via the non-equilibrium Green's function method combined with the Landauer formalism. We find dips in the conductance that correspond well to the energy gaps of the infinite wire superlattice. From the infinite wire energy dispersion, we derive an equation relating the location of the conductance dips as a function of the (gate controllable) Fermi energy to the Rashba spin-orbit coupling strength. We propose that the strength of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction can be extracted via a charge conductance measurement.

9 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Measurement of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit magnetic fields
• Radiation-induced oscillatory magnetoresistance as a sensitive probe of the zero-field spin splitting in high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs devices
• Intersubband-induced spin-orbit interaction in quantum wells
• Electric Dipole Induced Spin Resonance in Disordered Semiconductors
• Weak antilocalization in high mobility Ga(x)In(1-x)As/InP two-dimensional electron gases with strong spin-orbit coupling
• Bloch's theory in periodic structures with Rashba's spin-orbit interaction

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• Effect of gate-driven spin resonance on the conductance of a one-dimensional quantum wire
• Spin transistor operation driven by the Rashba spin-orbit coupling in the gated nanowire
• Strain Engineering of Spin and Rashba properties in Group-III Monochalcogenide MX (M=Ga, In and X=S, Se, Te) Monolayer
• Proposal for a Datta-Das transistor in the quantum Hall regime
• Energy spectrum, the spin polarization, and the optical selection rules of the Kronig-Penney superlattice model with spin-orbit coupling
• Spin transition rates in nanowire superlattices: Rashba spin-orbit coupling effects
• Spin-filtering and charge- and spin-switching effects in a quantum wire with periodically attached stubs
• Asymmetric Landau bands due to spin-orbit coupling