Magnetoconductance properties of rectangular arrays of spintronic quantum rings

TL;DR

This paper analyzes electron transport in rectangular arrays of quantum rings with spin-orbit interaction and magnetic field, revealing conditions for transparency and spin transformations, with implications for spintronic device design.

Contribution

It provides analytical expressions for conductance in quantum ring arrays considering SOI and magnetic flux, highlighting spin interference effects and disorder impacts.

Findings

Array can be fully opaque or transparent depending on parameters.

Spin transformations occur at array outputs.

Conductance oscillates with SOI strength and disorder.

Abstract

Electron transport through multi-terminal rectangular arrays of quantum rings is studied in the presence of Rashba-type spin-orbit interaction (SOI) and of a perpendicular magnetic field. Using the analytic expressions for the transmission and reflection coefficients for single rings we obtain the conductance through such arrays as a function of the SOI strength, the magnetic flux, and of the wave vector $k$ of the incident electron. Due to destructive or constructive spin interferences caused by the SOI, the array can be totally opaque for certain ranges of $k$, while there are parameter values where it is completely transparent. Spin resolved transmission probabilities show nontrivial spin transformations at the outputs of the arrays. When point-like random scattering centers are placed between the rings, the Aharonov-Bohm peaks split, and an oscillatory behavior of the conductance emerges as a function of the SOI strength.