Electrical driving single barrier spin cell

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel spin cell device that uses photon-assisted tunneling and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction to generate and control spin currents without net charge flow, advancing spintronics technology.

Contribution

The work presents a new spin cell design leveraging photon-assisted tunneling and spin-orbit coupling to produce tunable spin currents with zero charge current.

Findings

Spin currents can be driven through a barrier using AC fields.

Spin current flow is adjustable via AC frequency and electric field.

Net charge current remains zero despite spin current flow.

Abstract

We propose a spin cell based on photon-assisted tunneling through a conventional semiconductor barrier. The Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction is included to break the spin rotation symmetry. Due to the in-plane electric field induced asymmetric momentum distribution in one lead, continuous flows of spin currents are driven through a barrier by a AC field. The net charge current remains zero. The spin current via photon-assisted tunneling can be readily adjusted via tuning the AC frequency or the in-plane electric field. This device may function as an ideal spin cell to supply spin currents in the spintronics circuit.