Spin-Orbit induced semiconductor spin guides

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a wire-shaped modulation of Rashba spin-orbit coupling in a quantum well can act as a spin filter, guiding electrons with a specific spin orientation through the structure.

Contribution

It introduces a novel spin guide mechanism based on spin-orbit modulation, enabling selective spin transmission in semiconductor heterostructures.

Findings

Propagating states exist only for a specific spin orientation.

The spin guide can effectively filter and transmit electrons with the desired spin.

The approach leverages tunable Rashba spin-orbit coupling for spin control.

Abstract

The tunability of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling allows to build semiconductor heterostructures with space modulated coupling intensities. We show that a wire-shaped spin-orbit modulation in a quantum well can support propagating electronic states inside the wire only for a certain spin orientation and, therefore, it acts as an effective spin transmission guide for this particular spin orientation.