Spin-selective Peierls transition in interacting one-dimensional conductors with spin-orbit interaction

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that interacting one-dimensional conductors with spin-orbit coupling undergo a spin-selective Peierls transition, creating a spin filter with potential applications in spintronics, driven by magnetic fields and spin-orbit interactions.

Contribution

It reveals a novel spin-selective Peierls transition in 1D conductors with spin-orbit coupling, showing how interactions enhance the gap and enable spin filtering.

Findings

Transition induces a significant gap for half the modes

Remaining modes conduct opposite spins in opposite directions

Magnetic fields and spin-orbit interactions strongly renormalize the gap

Abstract

Interacting one-dimensional conductors with Rashba spin-orbit coupling are shown to exhibit a spin-selective Peierls-type transition into a mixed spin-charge-density-wave state. The transition leads to a gap for one-half of the conducting modes, which is strongly enhanced by electron-electron interactions. The other half of the modes remains in a strongly renormalized gapless state and conducts opposite spins in opposite directions, thus providing a perfect spin filter. The transition is driven by magnetic field and by spin-orbit interactions. As an example we show for semiconducting quantum wires and carbon nanotubes that the gap induced by weak magnetic fields or intrinsic spin-orbit interactions can get renormalized by 1 order of magnitude up to 10 - 30 K.