Curved One-Dimensional Wire as a Spin Rotator

Abstract

We propose a semiconductor structure that can rotate the electron spin without using ferromagnetic contacts, tunneling barriers, external radiation etc. The structure consists of a strongly curved one-dimensional ballistic wire with intrinsic spin-orbit interactions of Rashba type. Our calculations and analytical formulae show that the proposed device can redistribute the current densities between the two spin-split modes without backscattering and, thus, serve as a reflectionless and high-speed spin switcher. Using parameters relevant for InAs we investigate the projection of current density spin polarization on the spin-quantization axis as a function of the Rashba constant, external magnetic field, and radius of the wire's curvature.

10 pages, 6 figures; replaced with considerably extended version

References in corpus (4)

• Resonant inversion of the circular photogalvanic effect in n-doped quantum wells
• Spin rotation for ballistic electron transmission induced by spin-orbit interaction
• On geometric potentials in nanomechanical circuits
• Characterization of one-dimensional quantum channels in InAs/AlSb

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Spin dynamics in rolled-up two dimensional electron gases
• Weak (anti)localization in tubular semiconductor nanowires with spin-orbit coupling
• Spin and charge transport in U-shaped one-dimensional channels with spin-orbit couplings
• Analytical solution of narrow quantum rings with general Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings
• Curvature induced out of plane spin accumulation
• Spin-orbit coupled transport in a curved quantum wire