Hartree-Fock ground state of the two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

TL;DR

This paper investigates the ground state phases of a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling using Hartree-Fock theory, revealing phase competition and comparing with experimental data.

Contribution

It provides a phase diagram of the electron gas considering Rashba interaction and identifies the nature of the competing quantum phases, which is a novel theoretical insight.

Findings

Identification of ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases

Phase diagram based on interaction strengths and density

Comparison with experimental results in GaAs-AlGaAs heterostructures

Abstract

We search for the uniform Hartree-Fock ground state of the two-dimensional electron gas formed in semiconductor heterostructures including the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. We identify two competing quantum phases: a ferromagnetic one with partial spin polarization in the perpendicular direction and a paramagnetic one with in-plane spin. We present a phase diagram in terms of the relative strengths of the Rashba to the Coulomb interaction and the electron density. We compare our theoretical description with existing experimental results obtained in GaAs-AlGaAs heterostructures.