Oscillating spin-orbit interaction in two-dimensional superlattices: Sharp transmission resonances and time-dependent spin-polarized currents

Abstract

We consider ballistic transport through a lateral, two-dimensional superlattice with experimentally realizable, sinusoidally oscillating, Rashba-type spin-orbit interaction (SOI). The periodic structure of the rectangular lattice produces a spin-dependent miniband structure for static SOI. Using Floquet theory, transmission peaks are shown to appear in the mini-bandgaps as a consequence of the additional, time-dependent SOI. A detailed analysis shows that this effect is due to the generation of harmonics of the driving frequency, via which, e.g., resonances that cannot be excited in the case of static SOI become available. Additionally, the transmitted current shows space-and time-dependent partial spin polarization, in other words, polarization waves propagate through the superlattice.

Quantum ring with the Rashba spin-orbit interaction in the regime of strong light-matter coupling

“…Rapidly developing field of spintronics deals with spin related phenomena in mesoscopic transport [1][2][3][4][5] . Generally, the spins of individual carriers can be controlled either by application of an external magnetic field or via change of the strength of the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) in the system.…”

All-electric single-electron spin-to-charge conversion

“…The solidstate qubit based on electron spin in electrostatic quantum dots is the easiest to implement and is one of a few promising candidates for quantum computing 24 . The Rashba type spin-orbit coupling (RSOI) 25,26 , which couples orbital and spin degrees of freedom, allows for efficient manipulation of the spin qubit [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] . Moreover, there are several possibilities to obtain a scalable quantum computation architecture consisting of multiple electron spins.…”

Electron spin rotations induced by oscillating Rashba interaction in a quantum wire

“…Such spins separation may be used for a single spin initialization in a zero magnetic field 51 . Effects of time dependent RSO coupling on the spin polarized currents has been studied for graphene monolayers 52 and for the two-dimensional superlattices 53 . Nonhomogeneous Rashba interaction also leads to the possibility of controlling the magnetic anisotropy of thin ferromagnetic layers using an electric field 54 .…”