The transport equations for a two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit interaction are presented. The distribution function is a 2x2-matrix in the spin space. Particle and energy conservation laws determine the expressions for the electric current and the energy flow. The derived transport equations are applied to the spin-splitting of a wave packed and to the calculation of the structure factor and the dynamic conductivity.
Spin-orbit coupling induced anisotropies of plasmon dynamics are investigated in two-dimensional semiconductor structures. The interplay of the linear Bychkov-Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions drastically affects the plasmon spectrum: the dynamical structure factor exhibits variations over several decades, prohibiting plasmon propagation in specific directions. While this plasmon filtering makes the presence of spin-orbit coupling in plasmon dynamics observable, it also offers a control tool for plasmonic devices. Remarkably, if the strengths of the two interactions are equal, not only the anisotropy, but all the traces of the linear spin-orbit coupling in the collective response disappear.
Using time-resolved Faraday rotation, the drift-induced spin-orbit Field of a two-dimensional electron gas in an InGaAs quantum well is measured. Including measurements of the electron mobility, the Dresselhaus and Rashba coefficients are determined as a function of temperature between 10 and 80 K. By comparing the relative size of these terms with a measured in-plane anisotropy of the spin dephasing rate, the Dyakonv-Perel contribution to spin dephasing is estimated. The measured dephasing rate is significantly larger than this, which can only partially be explained by an inhomogeneous g-factor.
The Wigner-crystal phase of two-dimensional electrons interacting via the Coulomb repulsion and subject to a strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling is investigated. For low enough electronic densities the spin-orbit band splitting can be larger than the zero-point energy of the lattice vibrations. Then the degeneracy of the lower subband results in a spontaneous symmetry breaking of the vibrational ground state. The $60^{circ}-$rotational symmetry of the triangular (spin-orbit coupling free) structure is lost, and the unit cell of the new lattice contains two electrons. Breaking the rotational symmetry also leads to a (slight) squeezing of the underlying triangular lattice.
The formation of novel two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) with high mobility in metal/amorphous interfaces has motivated an ongoing debate regarding the formation and novel characteristics of these 2DEGs. Here we report an optical study, based on infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry, of nonmagnetic metal and amorphous semiconducting oxide (Cu/Bi$_2$O$_3$) interfaces that confirms the formation of a 2DEG with spin orbit coupling (SOC). The 2DEG optical response was simulated with a uniaxial diagonal dielectric tensor within a sub-nanometer thin layer, where its $x$ and $z$ components lineshapes resolved in both free-electron and peak-like contributions, resulted very similar to theoretical predictions [M. Xie et al., Phys. Rev. B $bf{89}$, 245417 (2014)] of a two dimensional electron gas confined in the normal direction of a perovskite interface. In particular, the small but finite conducting character of the $z$ component provides a unambiguous signature of the presence of the 2DEG in the Cu/Bi$_2$O$_3$ system. Although the original constituent materials do not possess spin-orbit coupling (SOC), the resulting interfacial hybridization of such states induce electronic asymmetric wave functions. This work demonstrates the detection of 2DEG in amorphous crystals allowing to study its challenging interfacial phenomena such as SOC and interface-bulk coupling, overcoming an experimental impediment which has hold back for decades important advancements for the understanding of 2DEGs in amorphous materials.
Spin-orbit interaction is usefully classified as extrinsic or intrinsic depending on its origin: the potential due to random impurities (extrinsic), or the crystalline potential associated with the band or device structure (intrinsic). In this paper we will show how by using a SU(2) formulation the two sources of spin-orbit interaction may be described in an elegant and unified way. As a result we obtain a simple description of the interplay of the two types of spin-orbit interaction, and a physically transparent explanation of the vanishing of the d.c. spin Hall conductivity in a Rashba two-dimensional electron gas when spin relaxation is neglected, and its reinstatement when spin relaxation is allowed. Furthermore, we obtain an explicit formula for the transverse spin polarization created by an electric current, which generalizes the standard formula obtained by Edelstein and Aronov and Lyanda-Geller by including extrinsic spin-orbit interaction and spin relaxation.