Quantum interference patterns around magnetic impurities in a 2D electron gas with strong Rashba spin-orbit interaction

TL;DR

This paper derives explicit formulas for local density of states and magnetization patterns around magnetic impurities in a 2D electron gas with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling, aiding experimental determination of the spin-orbit constant.

Contribution

It provides asymptotically exact analytical expressions for LDOS and magnetization around magnetic defects, including arbitrary defect magnetic moments and spin-orbit strength, enhancing understanding of spin textures.

Findings

Magnetic scattering does not alter the local density of states in the presence of spin-orbit interaction.

The spin texture from in-plane magnetic moments and elastic scattering is not purely in-plane.

Proposes a method to determine the Rashba constant alpha in STM experiments.

Abstract

Explicit dependencies of the local density of states and the magnetization local density of states have been obtained around magnetic point defects in a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction . The expressions are given in the Born approximation for arbitrary magnitude and orientation of the defect magnetic moment, and for arbitrary size of the constant of spin-orbit interaction alpha/. On the basis of our asymptotically exact formulas a procedure for the determination of the constant alpha/ in STM experiments is proposed. The novel analytical results are compared with the numerical and approximate results of previous work. At variance with earlier work we find that that magnetic scattering in the presence of spin-orbit interaction does not modify the local density of states and that the spin texture resulting from in-plain orientation of the defect magnetic moment, and elastic scattering, is not a purely in-plane spin texture.