Superefficient electric-field-induced spin splitting in strained p-type quantum wells

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates that using holes in strained p-type quantum wells significantly enhances electric-field-induced spin splitting via the Rashba effect, with lattice mismatch further boosting efficiency, advancing spintronic device potential.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach of using holes and lattice mismatch to greatly improve Rashba spin splitting efficiency in quantum wells.

Findings

Order of magnitude improvement in spin splitting with holes

Lattice mismatch enhances Rashba effect

Inverse Rashba effect demonstrated

Abstract

We investigate theoretically the efficiency of the Rashba effect, i.e. the spin splitting resulting from an electric field. This is the mechanism behind the Datta-Das spin transistor. In the research efforts so far the carriers have usually been taken to be electrons. Here we demonstrate remarkable improvements by several orders of magnitude by utilising holes instead. We also show that the frequently neglected lattice-mismatch between GaAs and AlGaAs can be used to further enhance the efficiency of the spin splitting mechanism. An inverse Rashba effect is also demonstrated.