Spin injection and detection by resonant tunneling structure

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model showing how resonant tunneling diodes made from non-centrosymmetrical semiconductors can be used for spin injection and detection, leveraging spin-orbit coupling effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theory explaining spin-dependent transmission in RTDs and demonstrates their potential for spintronic applications.

Findings

RTDs can inject and detect spin-polarized carriers.

Spin-orbit coupling causes level splitting leading to spin effects.

In-plane electric currents are generated during spin transmission.

Abstract

A theory of spin-dependent electron transmission through resonant tunneling diode (RTD) grown of non-centrosymmetrical semiconductor compounds has been presented. It has been shown that RTD can be employed for injection and detection of spin-polarized carriers: (i) electric current flow in the interface plane leads to spin polarization of the transmitted carriers, (ii) transmission of the spin-polarized carriers through the RTD is accompanied by generation of an in-plane electric current. The microscopic origin of the effects is the spin-orbit coupling-induced splitting of the resonant level.