Electric field-induced spin textures in a superlattice with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electric fields induce complex spin textures in a one-dimensional superlattice with combined Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions, revealing conditions for observable spin phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of field-induced spin textures in a superlattice with tunable Rashba and Dresselhaus couplings, highlighting the emergence of detectable spin components with zero mean value.

Findings

Zero-mean spin components can produce observable spin textures.

Maximum spin textures occur when Rashba and Dresselhaus contributions are comparable.

Finite collision rate and temperature do not significantly alter the main spin and current characteristics.

Abstract

The DC charge current, field-induced spin polarization and spin textures are studied in the 1D gated superlattice with both fixed and varying Rashba and Dresselhaus contributions to spin-orbit coupling. It is found that a spin component with zero mean value can demonstrate non-vanishing field-induced spin texture in a superlattice cell which can be probed experimentally, with the highest amplitudes achievable in an interval of comparable Rashba and Dresselhaus terms. The consideration of the finite parameters for collision rate and temperature is found to be non-destructive for the calculated current and spin characteristics depending on all states below the Fermi level.