Spin interferometry in anisotropic spin-orbit fields

Abstract

Electron spins in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) can be manipulated by spin-orbit (SO) fields originating from either Rashba or Dresselhaus interactions with independent isotropic characteristics. Together, though, they produce anisotropic SO fields with consequences on quantum transport through spin interference. Here we study the transport properties of modelled mesoscopic rings subject to Rashba and Dresselhaus [001] SO couplings in the presence of an additional in-plane Zeeman field acting as a probe. By means of 1D and 2D quantum transport simulations we show that this setting presents anisotropies in the quantum resistance as a function of the Zeeman field direction. Moreover, the anisotropic resistance can be tuned by the Rashba strength up to the point to invert its response to the Zeeman field. We also find that a topological transition in the field texture that is associated with a geometric phase switching is imprinted in the anisotropy pattern. We conclude that resistance anisotropy measurements can reveal signatures of SO textures and geometric phases in spin carriers.

12 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (5)

• An Exact SU(2) Symmetry and Persistent Spin Helix in a Spin-Orbit Coupled System
• Emergence of the persistent spin helix in semiconductor quantum wells
• An On/Off Berry Phase Switch in Circular Graphene Resonators
• Direct determination of spin orbit interaction coefficients and realization of the persistent spin helix symmetry
• Topological transitions in spin interferometers

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• Photovoltaic effect generated by spin-orbit interactions
• Nonmonotonic quantum phase gathering in curved spintronic circuits
• Spin dynamics under the influence of elliptically rotating fields: Extracting the field topology from time-averaged quantities
• Effects of different lead magnetizations on the Datta-Das spin field-effect transistor
• Isotropic All-electric Spin analyzer based on a quantum ring with spin-orbit coupling
• Renormalization group analysis of weakly interacting van der Waals Fermi system