Ideal switching effect in periodic spin-orbit coupling structures

TL;DR

This paper reports a novel ideal switching effect in a semiconductor nanowire with periodic Rashba spin-orbit coupling, enabling bistable states controlled by gate voltage and tunable via SOC strength and structure length, promising for spintronic applications.

Contribution

It introduces an ideal switching mechanism in a periodic spin-orbit coupled nanowire, demonstrating controllable bistable states and robustness against SOC fluctuations.

Findings

Bistable ON and OFF states achieved by gate voltage tuning.

Switching effect tolerant to SOC fluctuations.

Energy range and position of OFF states are tunable.

Abstract

An ideal switching effect is discovered in a semiconductor nanowire with a spatially-periodic Rashba structure. Bistable `ON' and `OFF' states can be realized by tuning the gate voltage applied on the Rashba regions. The energy range and position of `OFF' states can be manipulated effectively by varying the strength of the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and the unit length of the periodic structure, respectively. The switching effect of the nanowire is found to be tolerant of small random fluctuations of SOC strength in the periodic structure. This ideal switching effect might be applicable in future spintronic devices.