Spin-dependent electron transport of a waveguide with Rashba spin-orbit coupling in an electromagnetic field

• Published in: Chinese physics B Vol. 18; no. 12; pp. 5462 - 5467
• Main Author: 肖贤波 李小毛 陈宇光
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.12.2009
• Subjects: Conductance; Electromagnetic fields; Electron transport; Emittance; Intersubband transitions; Irradiation; Joining; Matching; Mathematical analysis; Polarization; Strength; Waveguides; 电子传递; 电子发射; 电子电导; 电磁场强度; 耦合波导; 自旋极化; 自旋轨道耦合
• ISSN: 1674-1056; 2058-3834
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/18/12/055

We investigate theoretically the spin-dependent electron transport in a straight waveguide with Rashba spin-orbit coupling （SOC） under the irradiation of a transversely polarized electromagnetic （EM） field. Spin-dependent electron conductance and spin polarization are calculated as functions of the emitting energy of electrons or the strength of the EM field by adopting the mode matching approach. It is shown that the spin polarization can be manipulated by external parameters when the strength of Rashba SOC is strong. Furthermore, a sharp step structure is found to exist in the total electron conductance. These results can he understood by the nontrivial Rashba subbands intermixing and the electron intersubband transition when a finite-range transversely polarized EM field irradiates a straight waveguide.