Metal-insulator transition in a quantum wire driven by a modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

We study the ground-state properties of electrons confined to a quantum wire and subject to a smoothly modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling. When the period of the modulation becomes commensurate with the band filling, the Rashba coupling drives a quantum phase transition to a nonmagnetic insulating state. Using bosonization and a renormalization group approach, we find that this state is robust against electron-electron interactions. The gaps to charge-and spin excitations scale with the amplitude of the Rashba modulation with a common interaction-dependent exponent. An estimate of the expected size of the charge gap, using data for a gated InAs heterostructure, suggests that the effect can be put to practical use in a future spin transistor design.

Simultaneous effects of spin-orbit interaction and external electric field on the linear and nonlinear optical properties of a cubic quantum dot

“…So, controlling and calculating the spin-related effects are attractive and important not only from the fundamental scientific point of view, but also because of their effects on the electronic and optical properties of these structures (Lo 2009;Kuan et al 2004;Winkler 2003;Japaridze et al 2009;Debald and Kramer 2005;Mehdiyev et al 2009;Paaske et al 2010).…”

Intrinsic spin Hall effect in systems with striped spin-orbit coupling

“…One should also consider that our analysis is based on a simple one-band model, while the SOC in the 2DEG in the LAO/STO involves several bands [14,31,32]. Of course, the basic ideas of this work could be tested and hopefully implemented in other, perhaps simpler, systems involving heterostructures of semiconductors with modulated Rashba SOC which have been already discussed in the literature in different contexts [33][34][35].…”

Half-metal phases in a quantum wire with modulated spin-orbit interaction

“…In this Letter − building on the Peierls-type mechanism identified in [11] − we show how the interplay between a spatially smooth modulated Rashba SOI and an applied magnetic field along the SOI axis may induce a selective opening of energy gaps, providing for spin-polarized electron conductance in a quantum wire. A detailed analysis, based on explicit band diagonalization, bosonization, and extensive DMRG computations, proves that the resulting half-metal phases are stable against repulsive electron-electron interactions, suggesting that the proposed scheme can be realized in the laboratory.…”