Closed-form weak localization magnetoconductivity in quantum wells with arbitrary Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions

Abstract

We derive a closed-form expression for the weak localization (WL) corrections to the magnetoconductivity of a 2D electron system with arbitrary Rashba $\alpha$ and Dresselhaus $\beta$ (linear) and ${\beta }_3$ (cubic) spin-orbit interaction couplings, in a perpendicular magnetic field geometry. In a system of reference with an in-plane $\hat{z}$ axis chosen as the high spin-symmetry direction at $\alpha =\beta$, we formulate a new algorithm to calculate the three independent contributions that lead to WL. The antilocalization is counterbalanced by the term associated with the spin-relaxation along $\hat{z}$, dependent only on $\alpha -\beta$. The other term is generated by two identical scattering modes characterized by spin-relaxation rates which are explicit functions of the orientation of the scattered momentum. Excellent agreement is found with data from GaAs quantum wells, where in particular our theory correctly captures the shift of the minima of the WL curves as a function of $\alpha /\beta$. This suggests that the anisotropy of the effective spin relaxation rates is fundamental to understanding the effect of the SO coupling in transport.

arXiv comment5 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (9)

• An Exact SU(2) Symmetry and Persistent Spin Helix in a Spin-Orbit Coupled System
• Weak Antilocalization and Spin Precession in Quantum Wells
• Conduction band spin splitting and negative magnetoresistance in ${\mathrm{A}}_3{\mathrm{B}}_5$ heterostructures
• Dimensional Control of Antilocalisation and Spin Relaxation in Quantum Wires
• Weak antilocalization in high-mobility two-dimensional systems
• Stretchable persistent spin helices in GaAs quantum wells
• Control of Spin Helix Symmetry in Semiconductor Quantum Wells by Crystal Orientation
• Spin-orbit interaction and weak localization in heterostructures
• Magnetoconductivity in the presence of Bychkov-Rashba spin-orbit interaction

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Critical supercurrent and ${\varphi }_0$ state for probing a persistent spin helix
• Symmetry Breaking of the Persistent Spin Helix in Quantum Transport
• Effect of proximity-induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene mesoscopic billiards
• Quantum oscillations in 2D electron gases with spin-orbit and Zeeman interactions
• Magneto-anisotropic weak antilocalization in near-surface quantum wells
• Low-symmetry nanowire cross-sections for enhanced Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction
• Weak localization at arbitrary disorder strength in systems with generic spin-dependent fields
• Reliable modeling of weak antilocalization for accurate spin-lifetime extraction