Nonvanishing anisotropic magnetoresistance in Rashba two-dimensional electron systems with nonmagnetic disorders

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the existence of anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) in Rashba two-dimensional electron systems influenced by nonmagnetic disorder, with AMR magnitude depending on disorder smoothness and electron density.

Contribution

It reveals that AMR arises from in-plane magnetization, spin-orbit coupling, and nonmagnetic disorder, highlighting the impact of disorder smoothness and electron density on AMR magnitude.

Findings

AMR exists in Rashba 2D electron systems with nonmagnetic disorder.

AMR magnitude can reach approximately 24% at low electron densities.

AMR is highly sensitive to the smoothness of remote disorder scattering.

Abstract

We study anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) in a spin-polarized two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling and nonmagnetic disorder collision. We show that AMR exists, arising from the combined effect of in-plane magnetization, spin-orbit coupling, and nonmagnetic remote disorder scattering. Further, numerical evaluation demonstrates that the smoothness of the remote disorder can strongly affect AMR, and this AMR is sensitive to the electron density. Large magnitude of AMR ($\approx24%$) is obtained for low density system with strong spin-orbit splitting.