Spin polarization of electrons through corrugated surface in magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper investigates how surface curvature and magnetic fields influence electron spin polarization on corrugated surfaces, revealing curvature-induced effects that could enhance spintronic device performance.

Contribution

It analytically derives the effective Pauli equation for electrons on curved surfaces in magnetic fields and explores curvature-controlled spin polarization effects.

Findings

Zeeman gaps can be tuned by surface curvature

Curvature induces a geometric potential affecting electron behavior

Significant spin polarization occurs at low incident energies

Abstract

Noninteracting electrons confined to a corrugated surface are investigated in magnetic field, and the associated effective Pauli equation is given analytically by the thin-layer quantization scheme. Interestingly, the Zeeman splitting gaps can be adjusted by curvature, and there is a geometric potential induced by curvature. Further, we discuss the spin-dependent transport properties for confined electrons by numerical calculation. More interestingly, we find that the spin polarization induced by curvature becomes substantial when the incident energy has small value. The results are considerable for a spin transistor with small spin current.