Spin orientation and spin-Hall effect induced by tunneling electrons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that tunneling electrons through a symmetric double barrier quantum well induce spin polarization, spin-Hall current, and spin filtering effects due to Dresselhaus and spin-orbit interactions, even with isotropic incident electron distributions.

Contribution

It predicts observable spin filtering and spin-Hall effects in symmetric quantum wells caused by combined Dresselhaus and spin-orbit interactions, expanding previous understanding.

Findings

Induces spin polarization inside the well

Generates spin-polarized transmitted current

Produces planar spin-Hall current

Abstract

It is shown that a flux of unpolarized electrons across a symmetric double barrier quantum well induces a spin polarization inside the well. Besides, the transmitted current acquires a spin polarized component and the spin-Hall current flows in the planar direction. These phenomena are due to a combined effect of Dresselhaus interaction and the spin-orbit interaction induced by gradients of heterostructure material parameters. In contrast to previous studies of the spin filtering effect, we predict that it can be observed in case of an isotropic distribution of incident electrons.