Quantum transport in Rashba spin-orbit materials: A review

TL;DR

This review comprehensively covers spin-dependent transport phenomena in Rashba spin-orbit materials, including theoretical foundations, experimental observations, and effects in various nanostructures and hybrid systems.

Contribution

It provides an extensive synthesis of current knowledge on Rashba spin-orbit interactions across multiple material platforms and device architectures.

Findings

Analysis of spin current generation mechanisms

Interference effects in mesoscopic Rashba devices

Impact of Rashba interaction on topological and superconducting phenomena

Abstract

In this review article we describe spin-dependent transport in materials with spin-orbit interaction of Rashba type. We mainly focus on semiconductor heterostructures, topological insulators, graphene and hybrid structures involving superconductors as well. We start from basic properties of Rashba Hamiltonian in a two dimensional electron gas and then describe transport properties in two- and quasi-one-dimensional systems. The problem of spin current generation and interference effects in mesoscopic devices is described in detail. We address also the role of Rashba interaction on localisation effects in lattices with nontrivial topology, as well as on the Ahronov-Casher effect in ring structures. A brief section, in the end, describes also some related topics including the spin-Hall effect, the transition from weak localisation to weak anti localisation and the physics of Majorana Fermions in hybrid heterostructures involving Rashba materials in the presence of superconductivity.