We find that the total spectrum of electron states in a bounded 2D electron gas with spin-orbit interaction contains two types of evanescent states lying in different energy ranges. The first-type states fill in a gap, which opens in the band of propagating spin-splitted states if tangential momentum is nonzero. They are described by a pure imaginary wavevector. The states of second type lie in the forbidden band. They are described by a complex wavevector. These states give rise to unusual features of the electron transmission through a lateral potential barrier with spin-orbit interaction, such as an oscillatory dependence of the tunneling coefficient on the barrier width and electron energy. But of most interest is the spin polarization of an unpolarized incident electron flow. Particularly, the transmitted electron current acquires spin polarization even if the distribution function of incident electrons is symmetric with respect to the transverse momentum. The polarization efficiency is an oscillatory function of the barrier width. Spin filtering is most effective, if the Fermi energy is close to the barrier height.

We study the two-body problem for two-dimensional electron systems in a symmetrized Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model which is widely used to describe topological and conventional insulators. The main result is that two interacting electrons can form bound states with the energy in the gap of the band spectrum. The pairing mechanism can be interpreted as the formation of a negative reduced effective mass of two electrons. The problem is complicated because the relative motion of the electrons is coupled to the center-of-mass motion. We consider the case of zero total momentum. Detail calculations are carried out for the repulsive interaction potential of steplike form. The states are classified according to their spin structure and two-particle basis functions that form a given bound state. We analyze the spectra and electronic structure of the bound states in the case of both topological and trivial phases and especially focus on effects originating from the band inversion and the coupling of the electron and hole bands. In the trivial phase and the topological phase with the large coupling parameter a, the bound state spectra are qualitatively similar. However, when a is less a certain value, the situation changes dramatically. In the topological phase, new states arise with a higher binding energy at lower interaction potential, which evidences that the band inversion can favor pairing the electrons. arXiv:1702.02041v2 [cond-mat.mes-hall]

We show that the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) arising due to the in-plane electric field of the Coulomb repulsion between electrons in a two-dimensional quantum well produces an attractive component in the pair interaction Hamiltonian that depends on the spins and momenta of electrons. If the Rashba SOI constant of the material is high enough the attractive component overcomes the Coulomb repulsion and the centrifugal barrier, which leads to the formation of the two-electron bound states. There are two distinct types of two-electron bound states. The relative bound states are formed by the electrons orbiting around their common barycenter. They have the triplet spin structure and are independent of the center-of-mass momentum. In contrast, the convective bound states are formed because of the center-of-mass motion, which couples the electrons with opposite spins. The binding energy in the meV range is attainable for realistic conditions.

The spatial Fourier spectrum of the electron density distribution in a finite 1D system and the distribution function of electrons over single-particle states are studied in detail to show that there are two universal features in their behavior, which characterize the electron ordering and the deformation of Wigner crystal by boundaries. The distribution function has a $\delta$-like singularity at the Fermi momentum $k_F$. The Fourier spectrum of the density has a step-like form at the wavevector $2k_F$, with the harmonics being absent or vanishing above this threshold. These features are found by calculations using exact diagonalization method. They are shown to be caused by Wigner ordering of electrons, affected by the boundaries. However the common Luttinger liquid model with open boundaries fails to capture these features, because it overestimates the deformation of the Wigner crystal. An improvement of the Luttinger liquid model is proposed which allows one to describe the above features correctly. It is based on the corrected form of the density operator conserving the particle number.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures. Typos corrected and figures improve

Electron transport in a quantum wire with leads is investigated with actual Coulomb interaction taken into account. The latter includes both the direct interaction of electrons with each other and their interaction via the image charges induced in the leads. Exact analytical solution of the problem is found with the use of the bosonization technique for one-dimensional electrons and three-dimensional Poisson equation for the electric field. The Coulomb interaction is shown to change significantly the electron density distribution along the wire as compared with the Luttinger liquid model with short-range interactions. In DC and low frequency regimes, the Coulomb interaction causes the charge density to increase strongly in the vicinity of the contacts with the leads. The quantum wire impedance shows an oscillating behavior versus the frequency caused by the resonances of the charge waves. The Coulomb interaction produces a frequency dependent renormalization of the charge wave velocity.Comment: 10 two-colomn revtex pages, 6 postscript figures; one figure changed, some typos corrected, to be published in Phys.Rev.