Spin-polarized current separator based on a fork-shaped Rashba nanostructure

TL;DR

This paper proposes a fork-shaped Rashba nanostructure that can generate two opposite spin-polarized currents simultaneously, demonstrating potential for spintronic applications with robustness against disorder.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nanostructure design for efficient spin-polarized current separation using Rashba SOC and geometrical effects.

Findings

Two opposite spin-polarized currents can be generated simultaneously.

The spin-polarized currents are robust against disorder.

The scheme demonstrates feasibility for real spintronic devices.

Abstract

A scheme for a spin-polarized current separator is proposed by studying the spin-dependent electron transport of a fork-shaped nanostructure with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC), connected to three leads with the same width. It is found that two spin-polarized currents are of the same magnitude but opposite polarizations can be generated simultaneously in the two output leads when the spin-unpolarized electrons injected from the input lead. The underlying physics is revealed to originate from the different spin-dependent conductance caused by the effects of Rashba SOC and the geometrical structure of the system. Further study shows that the spin-polarized current with strong a robustness against disorder, demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed nanostructure for a real application.