Universality of low-energy Rashba scattering

Abstract

We investigate the scattering of a quantum particle with a two-dimensional (2D) Rashba spin-orbit coupled dispersion off of circularly symmetric potentials. As the energy of the particle approaches the bottom of the lowest spin-split band, i.e., the van Hove singularity, earlier work has shown that scattering off of an infinite circular barrier exhibits a number of features unusual from the point of view of conventional 2D scattering theory: the low-energy S-matrix is independent of the range of the potential, all partial waves contribute equally, the differential cross section becomes increasingly anisotropic and 1D-like, and the total cross section exhibits quantized plateaus. Via a nonperturbative determination of the T-matrix and an optical theorem which we prove here, we show that this behavior is universal for Rashba scattering off of any circularly symmetric, spin independent, finite-range potential. This is relevant both for impurity scattering in the noninteracting limit as well as for short-range two-particle scattering in the interacting problem.

arXiv commentEditors' Suggestion. 13 pages, 6 figures

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Unconventional transport in low-density two-dimensional Rashba systems
• Magnetic scattering with spin-momentum locking: Single scatterers and diffraction grating
• Enhanced Edelstein effect and interdimensional effects in an electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling interface