Magnetically induced oscillations of the spin polarization in the Datta-Das geometry

TL;DR

This paper explores how an in-plane magnetic field influences electron spin transport in quantum wires with spin-orbit coupling, revealing magnetically induced oscillations of spin polarization that enhance control over spin states.

Contribution

It demonstrates, using a scattering matrix approach, that magnetic fields can induce oscillations in electron spin polarization in the Datta-Das geometry, a novel control mechanism.

Findings

Magnetic field causes oscillations in electron spin polarization.

Enhanced control over spin states via magnetic field manipulation.

Prediction of a novel magnetically induced oscillation effect.

Abstract

The control of intrinsic magnetic degrees of freedom is very important as it offers a practical means to manipulate and probe electron spin transport. Tunable spin-orbit effect in quantum wires can in principle serve as a means to achieve this goal. Here, we investigate within the scattering matrix approach the effect of an in-plane magnetic field on the conductance of the quantum wire in the Datta-Das geometry and show that the interplay of the spin-orbit interaction with the magnetic field provides enhanced control over the electron spin polarization. In particular, we predict a novel effect of magnetically induced oscillations of the electron spin in a certain range of magnetic field.