Electric-field driven long-lived spin excitations on a cylindrical surface with spin-orbit interaction

TL;DR

This paper derives coupled spin-charge drift-diffusion equations for electrons on a cylindrical surface with spin-orbit interaction, revealing long-lived, electric-field driven spin excitations with potential spintronic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for long-lived spin excitations on cylindrical surfaces considering Rashba and Dresselhaus interactions, impurity scattering, and electric fields.

Findings

Identification of a long-lived spin excitation on a cylinder with Rashba coupling.

Discovery of weakly damped spin waves driven by electric fields.

Potential for non-ballistic spin-device applications.

Abstract

Based on quantum-kinetic equations, coupled spin-charge drift-diffusion equations are derived for a two-dimensional electron gas on a cylindrical surface. Besides the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction, the elastic scattering on impurities, and a constant electric field are taken into account. From the solution of the drift-diffusion equations, a long-lived spin excitation is identified for spins coupled to the Rashba term on a cylinder with a given radius. The electric-field driven weakly damped spin waves are manifest in the components of the magnetization and have the potential for non-ballistic spin-device applications.