Ballistic spin currents in mesoscopic metal/In(Ga)As/metal junctions

TL;DR

This paper studies how spin currents can flow in mesoscopic metal/semiconductor/metal junctions due to spin-orbit interactions, revealing conditions for real spin current generation.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of real longitudinal and transverse spin currents driven by Rashba and Dresselhaus effects in mesoscopic junctions.

Findings

Real spin currents can flow in the presence of spin-orbit interactions.

Both longitudinal and transverse spin currents are possible.

Spin currents depend on the strength of Rashba and Dresselhaus terms.

Abstract

We investigate the ballistic spin transport through a two-dimensional mesoscopic metal/semiconductor/metal double junctions in the presence of spin-orbit interactions. It is shown that \emph{real} longitudinal and/or transverse spin currents can flow in the presence of the Rashba and Dresselhaus terms.