A Theoretical Investigation of Relativistic Spintronics

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework for relativistic spintronics, extending traditional concepts to 4D spin-tensor degrees of freedom and exploring how electromagnetic fields influence electron spin states.

Contribution

It establishes a general theoretical basis for relativistic spintronics, introducing 4D spin-orbit-tensor coupling and analyzing electromagnetic control of electron spin states.

Findings

Extended 3D spin-orbit coupling to 4D spin-orbit-tensor coupling

Electromagnetic fields can manipulate spin states of both moving and stationary electrons

Relativistic effects provide richer content for spin control in electronic devices

Abstract

Spintronics directly based on relativistic quantum mechanics is called as relativistic spintronics, which involves the study of active control and manipulation of 4D spin-tensor degrees of freedom via the electromagnetic field tensor. For future potential electronic devices with smaller size, the study of relativistic spintronics would be valuable. In this paper, we try to establish a general theoretical basis for relativistic spintronics, from which we have: 1) in relativistic spintronics, there have more plentiful contents for relativistic effects, e.g. the usual 3D spatial spin-orbit coupling is extended to the 4D spin-orbit-tensor coupling; 2) via the spin and like-spin degrees of freedom we can simultaneously make use of electric and magnetic field strengths to orientate an electron; 3) not only the spin quantum states of a moving electron but also those of a motionless electron can be affected by some particular electrostatic fields.