Spin-dependent tunnelling through a symmetric barrier

TL;DR

This paper investigates how spin-dependent effects influence electron tunnelling through symmetric zinc-blende semiconductor barriers, revealing that spin orientation affects transmission probabilities due to Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Dresselhaus terms cause spin-dependent tunnelling in symmetric barriers, a novel insight into spintronic tunnelling phenomena.

Findings

Transmission varies with spin orientation by several percent.

Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling influences tunnelling in symmetric barriers.

Spin dependence becomes significant for certain barrier widths.

Abstract

The problem of electron tunnelling through a symmetric semiconductor barrier based on zinc-blende-structure material is studied. The $k^3$ Dresselhaus terms in the effective Hamiltonian of bulk semiconductor of the barrier are shown to result in a dependence of the tunnelling transmission on the spin orientation. The difference of the transmission probabilities for opposite spin orientations can achieve several percents for the reasonable width of the barriers.