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Register a new userImaging chiral Andreev reflection in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling
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Added by
Lucila Peralta Gavensky
Publication date
2021
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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In this work, we theoretically study transverse magnetic focusing in a two-dimensional electron gas with strong Rashba spin-orbit interaction when proximitized along its edge with a superconducting contact. The presence of superconducting correlations leads to the emergence of chiral Andreev edge states which -- within this weak magnetic field regime -- may be pictured as states following semiclassical skipping orbits with alternating electron-hole nature. The spin-orbit induced splitting of the Fermi surface causes these carriers to move along cyclotron orbits with different radii, allowing for their spatial spin separation. When Andreev reflection takes place at the superconducting lead, scattered carriers flip both their charge and spin, generating distinguishable features in the transport properties of the device. In particular, we report a notable enhancement of the separation between the spin-split focal points, which scales linearly with the number of Andreev scattering events at the anomalous terminal. We support our results by calculating conductance maps to arbitrary points in the sample that provide a complete image of the ballistic electron-hole cyclotron paths.
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Coherent charge transport along ballistic paths can be introduced into graphene by Andreev reflection, for which an electron reflects from a superconducting contact as a hole, while a Cooper pair is transmitted. We use a liquid-helium cooled scanning gate microscope (SGM) to image Andreev reflection in graphene in the magnetic focusing regime, where carriers move along cyclotron orbits between contacts. Images of flow are obtained by deflecting carrier paths and displaying the resulting change in conductance. When electrons enter the the superconductor, Andreev-reflected holes leave for the collecting contact. To test the results, we destroy Andreev reflection with a large current and by heating above the critical temperature. In both cases, the reflected carriers change from holes to electrons.
In 1984, Bychkov and Rashba introduced a simple form of spin-orbit coupling to explain certain peculiarities in the electron spin resonance of two-dimensional semiconductors. Over the past thirty years, similar ideas have been leading to a vast number of predictions, discoveries, and innovative concepts far beyond semiconductors. The past decade has been particularly creative with the realizations of means to manipulate spin orientation by moving electrons in space, controlling electron trajectories using spin as a steering wheel, and with the discovery of new topological classes of materials. These developments reinvigorated the interest of physicists and materials scientists in the development of inversion asymmetric structures ranging from layered graphene-like materials to cold atoms. This review presents the most remarkable recent and ongoing realizations of Rashba physics in condensed matter and beyond.
We use $vec{k}cdotvec{p}$ theory to estimate the Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in large semiconductor nanowires. We specifically investigate GaAs- and InSb-based devices with different gate configurations to control symmetry and localization of the electron charge density. We explore gate-controlled SOC for wires of different size and doping, and we show that in high carrier density SOC has a non-linear electric field susceptibility, due to large reshaping of the quantum states. We analyze recent experiments with InSb nanowires in light of our calculations. Good agreement is found with SOC coefficients reported in Phys. Rev.B 91, 201413(R) (2015), but not with the much larger values reported in Nat Commun., 8, 478 (2017). We discuss possible origins of this discrepancy.
Within an effective Dirac theory the low-energy dispersions of monolayer graphene in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and spin-degenerate bilayer graphene are described by formally identical expressions. We explore implications of this correspondence for transport by choosing chiral tunneling through pn and pnp junctions as a concrete example. A real-space Greens function formalism based on a tight-binding model is adopted to perform the ballistic transport calculations, which cover and confirm previous theoretical results based on the Dirac theory. Chiral tunneling in monolayer graphene in the presence of Rashba coupling is shown to indeed behave like in bilayer graphene. Combined effects of a forbidden normal transmission and spin separation are observed within the single-band n to p transmission regime. The former comes from real-spin conservation, in analogy with pseudospin conservation in bilayer graphene, while the latter arises from the intrinsic spin-Hall mechanism of the Rashba coupling.
In the absence of an external field, the Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) in a two-dimensional electron gas in a semiconductor quantum well arises entirely from the screened electrostatic potential of ionized donors. We adjust the wave functions of a quantum well so that electrons occupying the first (lowest) subband conserve their spin projection along the growth axis (Sz), while the electrons occupying the second subband precess due to Rashba SOI. Such a specially designed quantum well may be used as a spin relaxation trigger: electrons conserve Sz when the applied voltage (or current) is lower than a certain threshold V*; higher voltage switches on the Dyakonov-Perel spin relaxation.
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