No Arabic abstract
One-dimensional quantum rings with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings are studied analytically and are in perfect agreement with the numerical results. The topological charge of the spin field defined by the winding number along the ring is also studied analytically and numerically in the presence of the spin-orbit interactions. We also demonstrate the cases where the one-dimensional model is invalid for a relatively large radius. However, the numerical results of the two-dimensional model always remain reliable. Just as many physical properties of the quantum rings are influenced by the Aharonov-Bohm effect, the topological charge is also found to vary periodically due to the step-like change of the angular momentum with an increase of the magnetic field. This is significantly different from the cases of quantum dots. We also study how the current is induced by the magnetic field and spin-orbit couplings, which is strong enough that it could to be detected. The magnetic induction lines induced by the spin field and the current are also analyzed which can be observed and could perhaps help identifying the topological features of the spin fields in a quantum ring.
When adiabatically varied in time, certain one-dimensional band insulators allow for the quantized noiseless pumping of spin even in the presence of strong spin orbit scattering. These spin pumps are closely related to the quantum spin Hall system, and their properties are protected by a time-reversal restriction on the pumping cycle. In this paper we study pumps formed of one-dimensional insulators with a time-reversal restriction on the pumping cycle and a bulk energy gap which arises due to interactions. We find that the correlated gapped phase can lead to novel pumping properties. In particular, systems with $d$ different ground states can give rise to $d+1$ different classes of spin pumps, including a trivial class which does not pump quantized spin and $d$ non-trivial classes allowing for the pumping of quantized spin $hbar/n $ on average per cycle, where $1leq nleq d$. We discuss an example of a spin pump that transfers on average spin $ hbar/2$ without transferring charge.
An unbiased one-dimensional weak link between two terminals, subjected to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction caused by an AC electric field which rotates periodically in the plane perpendicular to the link, is shown to inject spin-polarized electrons into the terminals. The injected spin-polarization has a DC component along the link and a rotating transverse component in the perpendicular plane. In the adiabatic, low rotation-frequency regime, these polarization components are proportional to the frequency. The DC component of the polarization vanishes for a linearly-polarized electric field.
Berry phase in a single quantum dot with Rashba spin-orbit coupling is investigated theoretically. Berry phases as functions of magnetic field strength, dot size, spin-orbit coupling and photon-spin coupling constants are evaluated. It is shown that the Berry phase will alter dramatically from 0 to $2pi$ as the magnetic field strength increases. The threshold of magnetic field depends on the dot size and the spin-orbit coupling constant.
Spin-orbit interaction is investigated in a dual gated InAs/GaSb quantum well. Using an electric field the quantum well can be tuned between a single carrier regime with exclusively electrons as carriers and a two-carriers regime where electrons and holes coexist. Spin-orbit interaction in both regimes manifests itself as a beating in the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. In the single carrier regime the linear Dresselhaus strength is characterized by $beta =$ 28.5 meV$AA$ and the Rashba coefficient $alpha$ is tuned from 75 to 53 meV$AA$ by changing the electric field. In the two-carriers regime the spin splitting shows a nonmonotonic behavior with gate voltage, which is consistent with our band structure calculations.
A new type of blockade effect - spin-orbit blockade (SOB) - is found in the conduction of a quantum dot (QD) made of a material with spin-orbit interaction. The blockade arises from spin-filtering effect in a quantum point contact (QPC), which is a component of the QD. Hence the appearance of the blockade itself evidences the spin-filtering effect in the QPC. The lower bound of filtering efficiency is estimated to be above 80%.