Determination of Rashba-coupling strength for surface two-dimensional electron gas in InAs nanowires

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new experimental method to determine the Rashba spin-orbit coupling strength in InAs nanowires by analyzing ballistic transport and thermopower, aiding spintronics research.

Contribution

It proposes a novel approach to measure Rashba SOC strength in InAs nanowires using ballistic transport and thermopower analysis, with a derived formula for thermopower in complex subband structures.

Findings

Ballistic conductance and thermopower reveal features due to strong SOC.

A general formula for thermopower in complex subband structures is derived.

The method enables experimental determination of Rashba SOC strength.

Abstract

A key concept in the field of semiconductor spintronics is an electric field control of spins via the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and the SOC strength governs efficiency of this control. We propose a new approach that allows the experimental determination of the Rashba SOC strength for ballistic InAs nanowires. The energy spectrum and ballistic transport of carriers through the nanowire with surface two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a homogeneous magnetic field are studied. A general formula for the linear-response one-dimensional ballistic thermopower is derived in the case of complex subband structure. The ballistic conductance and the thermopower are shown to reveal specific features due to strong SOC that allows us to propose a method for the SOC strength determination.