Spin-orbit splitting of the conduction band in HgTe quantum wells: role of different mechanisms

TL;DR

This study experimentally investigates the spin-orbit splitting in HgTe quantum wells, revealing that the Rashba effect predominantly contributes to the splitting, with interface asymmetry playing a lesser role.

Contribution

It provides detailed experimental analysis of spin-orbit splitting mechanisms in HgTe quantum wells and compares results with four-band kP-model calculations, highlighting the dominant Rashba effect.

Findings

Spin-orbit splitting increases with electron density.

Main contribution from Rashba effect, interface asymmetry less significant.

Magneto-intersubband oscillations observed and analyzed.

Abstract

Spin-orbit splitting of conduction band in HgTe quantum wells was studied experimentally. In order to recognize the role of different mechanisms, we carried out detailed measurements of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in gated structures with a quantum well widths from $8$ to $18$ nm over a wide range of electron density. With increasing electron density controlled by the gate voltage, splitting of the maximum of the Fourier spectrum $f_0$ into two components $f_1$ and $f_2$ and the appearance of the low-frequency component $f_3$ was observed. Analysis of these results shows that the components $f_1$ and $f_2$ give the electron densities $n_1$ and $n_2$ in spin-orbit split subbands while the $f_3$ component results from magneto-intersubband oscillations so that $f_3=f_1 - f_2$. Comparison of these data with results of self-consistent calculations carried out within the framework of four-band \emph{kP}-model shows that a main contribution to spin-orbit splitting comes from the Bychkov-Rashba effect. Contribution of the interface inversion asymmetry to the splitting of the conduction band turns out to be four-to-five times less than that for the valence band in the same structures.