Ballistic side jump motion of electrons and holes in semiconductor quantum wells

TL;DR

This paper studies how electrons and holes in semiconductor quantum wells exhibit a significant side jump motion perpendicular to an electric field, influenced by spin-orbit coupling, with potential experimental relevance.

Contribution

It provides a non-perturbative analysis of ballistic side jump motion in quantum wells considering spin-orbit effects and electric fields, offering analytical estimates and scaling insights.

Findings

Side jump amplitude increases as electric field decreases.

Wave packet width influences the magnitude of the side jump.

The effect's scaling behavior suggests experimental detectability.

Abstract

We investigate the ballistic motion of electrons and holes in III-V semiconductor quantum wells with spin-orbit coupling and a homogeneous in-plane electric field. As a result of a non-perturbative treatment of both of these influences, particle wave packets undergo a pronounced side jump perpendicular to the field direction. For wave packets of sufficient width the amplitude of this motion can be estimated analytically and increases with decreasing field strength. We discuss the scaling behavior of the effect and some if its experimental implications