Anisotropy of the spin-orbit coupling driven by a magnetic field in InAs nanowires

Abstract

We use the $\mathbf{k}\cdot \mathbf{p}$ theory and the envelope function approach to evaluate the Rashba spin-orbit coupling induced in a semiconductor nanowire by a magnetic field at different orientations, taking explicitely into account the prismatic symmetry of typical nano-crystals. We make the case for the strongly spin-orbit-coupled InAs semiconductor nanowires and investigate the anisotropy of the spin-orbit constant with respect to the field direction. At sufficiently high magnetic fields perpendicular to the nanowire, a 6-fold anisotropy results from the interplay between the orbital effect of field and the prismatic symmetry of the nanowire. A back-gate potential, breaking the native symmetry of the nano-crystal, couples to the magnetic field inducing a 2-fold anisotropy, with the spin-orbit coupling being maximized or minimized depending on the relative orientation of the two fields. We also investigate in-wire field configurations, which shows a trivial 2-fold symmetry when the field is rotated off the axis. However, isotropic spin-orbit coupling is restored if a sufficiently high gate potential is applied. Our calculations are shown to agree with recent experimental analysis of the vectorial character of the spin-orbit coupling for the same nanomaterial, providing a microscopic interpretation of the latter.

12 pages, 14 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Electronic structure of full-shell InAs/Al hybrid semiconductor-superconductor nanowires: Spin-orbit coupling and topological phase space
• Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and electron gas transitions in hexagonal core-shell nanowires with an axial magnetic field
• Spin filtering effect generated by the inter-subband spin-orbit coupling in the bilayer nanowire with the quantum point contact
• Renormalization of the Majorana bound state decay length in a perpendicular magnetic field
• Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling in [111]-oriented semiconductor nanowires

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Anomalous thermodynamics in a mixed spin-1/2 and spin-1 hexagonal nanowire system
• Band structure of n- and p-doped core-shell nanowires
• Helical and topological phase detection based on nonlocal conductance measurements in a three terminal junction