Anomalous Josephson effect between d-wave superconductors through a two-dimensional electron gas with both Rashba spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting

Based on the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation and the extended McMillan’s Green’s function formalism,we study theoretically the Josephson effect between two d-wave superconductors bridged by a ballistic two-dimensional electron gas with both Rashba spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting.We show that due to the interplay of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting and d-wave pairing,the current-phase relation in such a heterostructure may exhibit a series of novel features and can change significantly as some relevant parameters are tuned.In particular,anomalous Josephson current may occur at zero phase bias under various different situations if both time reversal symmetry and inversion symmetry of the system are simultaneously broken,which can be realized by tuning some relevant parameters of the system,including the relative orientations and the strengths of the Zeeman field and the spin-orbit field in the bridge region,the relative orientations of the a axes in two superconductor leads,or the relative orientations between the Zeeman field in the bridge region and the a axes in the superconductor leads.We show that both the magnitude and the direction of the anomalous Josephson current may depend sensitively on these relevant parameters.

Spin current and its heat effect in a multichannel quantum wire with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Using the perturbation method, we theoretically study the spin current and its heat effect in a multichannel quantum wire with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. The heat generated by the spin current is calculated. With the increase of the width of the quantum wire, the spin current and the heat generated both exhibit period oscillations with equal amplitudes. When the quantum-channel number is doubled, the oscillation periods of the spin current and of the heat generated both decrease by a factor of 2. For the spin current js,xy, the amplitude increases with the decrease of the quantum channel; while the amplitude of the spin current js,yx remains the same. Therefore we conclude that the effect of the quantum-channel number on the spin current js,xy is greater than that on the spin current js,yx. The strength of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling is tunable by the gate voltage, and the gate voltage can be varied experimentally, which implies a new method of detecting the. spin current. In addition, we can control the amplitude and the oscillation period of the spin current by controlling the number of the quantum channels. All these characteristics of the spin current will be very important for detecting and controlling the spin current, and especially for designing new spintronic devices in the future.

Transport properties in a multi-terminal regular polygonal quantum ring with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Transport properties in a multi-terminal regular polygonal quantum ring with Rashba spin-orbit coupling （SOC） are investigated analytically using quantum networks and the transport matrix metLod. The results show that conduc- tances remain at exactly the same values when the output leads are located at axisymmetric positions. However, for the nonaxisymmetrical case, there is a phase difference between the upper and lower arm, which leads to zero conductances appearing periodically. An isotropy of the conductance is destroyed by the Rashba SOC effect in the axisymmetric case. In addition, the position of zero conductance is regulated with the strength of the Rashba SOC.

A pure spin-current injector of semiconductor quantum dots with Andreev reflection and Rashba spin-orbit coupling

We propose a four-terminal device consisting of two parallel quantum dots with Rashba spin-orbit interaction （RSOI）, coupled to two side superconductor leads and two common ferromagnetic leads, respectively. The two ferromagnetic leads and two quantum dots form a ring threaded by Aharonov-Bohm （AB） flux. This device possesses normal quasiparticle transmission between the two ferromagnetic leads, and normal and crossed Andreev reflections providing conductive holes. For the appropriate spin polarization of the ferromagnetic leads, RSOI and AB flux, the pure spin-up （or spin-down） current without net charge current in the right lead, which is due to the equal numbers of electrons and holes with the same spin-polarization moving along the same direction, can be obtained by adjusting the gate voltage, which may be used in practice as a pure spin-current injector.

Polarized spin transport in mesoscopic quantum rings with electron phonon and Rashba spin-orbit coupling

The influence of electron-phonon （EP） scattering on spin polarization of current output from a mesoscopic ring with Rashba spin-orbit （SO） interaction is numerically investigated. There are three leads connecting to the ring at different positionsl unpolarized current is injected to one of them, and the other two are output channels with different bias voltages. The spin polarization of current in the outgoing leads shows oscillations as a function of EP coupling strength owing to the quantum interference of EP states in the ring region. As temperature increases, the oscillations are evidently suppressed, implying decoherence of the EP states. The simulation shows that the magnitude of polarized current is sensitive to the location of the lead. The polarized current depends on the connecting position of the lead in a complicated way due to the spin-sensitive quantum interference effects caused by different phases accumulated by transmitting electrons with opposite spin states along different paths.

Interfacial spin Hall current in a Josephson junction with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

We theoretically investigate the spin transport properties of the Cooper pairs in a conventional Josephson junction with Rashba spin-orbit coupling considered in one of the superconducting leads.It is found that an angle-resolved spin supercurrent flows through the junction and a nonzero interfacial spin Hall current driven by the superconducting phase difference also appears at the interface.The physical origin of this is that the Rashba spin-orbit coupling can induce a triplet order parameter in the s-wave superconductor.The interfacial spin Hall current dependences on the system parameters are also discussed.

Coherent charge transport in ferromagnet/semiconductor nanowire/ferromagnet double barrier junctions with the interplay of Rashba spin-orbit coupling, induced superconducting pair potential,and external magnetic field

By solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation, the influence of the interplay of Rashba spin-orbit coupling, induced superconducting pair potential, and external magnetic field on the spin-polarized coherent charge transport in ferromagnet/semiconductor nanowire/ferromagnet double barrier junctions is investigated based on the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk theory. The coherence effect is characterized by the strong oscillations of the charge conductance as a function of the bias voltage or the thickness of the semiconductor nanowire, resulting from the quantum interference of incoming and outgoing quasiparticles in the nanowire. Such oscillations can be effectively modulated by varying the strength of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling, the thickness of the nanowire, or the strength of the external magnetic field. It is also shown that two different types of zero-bias conductance peaks may occur under some particular conditions, which have some different characteristics and may be due to different mechanisms.

Influence of spin-orbit coupling induced by in-plane external electric field on the intrinsic spin-Hall effect in a Rashba two-dimensional electron gas

We study theoretically the influence of spin-orbit coupling induced by in-plane external electric field on the intrinsic spin-Hall effect in a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We show that, after such an influence is taken into account, the static intrinsic spin-Hall effect can be stabilized in a disordered Rashba twodimensional electron gas, and the static intrinsic spin-Hall conductivity shall exhibit some interesting characteristics as conceived in some original theoretical proposals.

Influence of Rashba spin–orbit coupling on Josephson effect in triplet superconductor/two-dimensional semiconductor/triplet superconductor junctions

We study theoretically Josephson effect in a planar ballistic junction between two triplet superconductors with pwave orbital symmetries and separated by a two-dimensional(2D)semiconductor channel with strong Rashba spin–orbit coupling.In triplet superconductors,three types of orbital symmetries are considered.We use Bogoliubov–de Gennes formalism to describe quasiparticle propagations through the junction and the supercurrents are calculated in terms of Andreev reflection coefficients.The features of the variation of the supercurrents with the change of the strength of Rashba spin–orbit coupling are investigated in some detail.It is found that for the three types of orbital symmetries considered,both the magnitudes of supercurrent and the current-phase relations can be manipulated effectively by tuning the strength of Rashba spin–orbit coupling.The interplay of Rashba spin–orbit coupling and Zeeman magnetic field on supercurrent is also investigated in some detail.

Gate tunable Rashba spin-orbit coupling at CaZrO_(3)/SrTiO_(3)heterointerface

High mobility quasi two-dimensional electron gas(2DEG)found at the CaZrO_(3)/SrTiO_(3) nonpolar heterointerface is attractive and provides a platform for the development of functional devices and nanoelectronics.Here we report that the carrier density and mobility at low temperature can be tuned by gate voltage at the CaZrO_(3)/SrTiO_(3) interface.Furthermore,the magnitude of Rashba spin-orbit interaction can be modulated and increases with the gate voltage.Remarkably,the diffusion constant and the spin-orbit relaxation time can be strongly tuned by gate voltage.The diffusion constant increases by a factor of~19.98 and the relaxation time is reduced by a factor of over three orders of magnitude while the gate voltage is swept from-50 V to 100 V.These findings not only lay a foundation for further understanding the underlying mechanism of Rashba spin-orbit coupling,but also have great significance in developing various oxide functional devices.

The effect of k-cubic Dresselhaus spin orbit coupling on the decay time of persistent spin helix states in semiconductor two-dimensional electron gases

We study the theoretical effect of k-cubic （i.e, cubic-in-momentum） Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling on the decay time of persistent spin helix states in semiconductor two-dimensional electron gases. We show that the decay time of persistent spin helix states may be suppressed substantially by k-cubic Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling, and after taking the effect of k-cubic Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction into account, the theoretical results obtained accord both qualitatively and quantitatively with other recent experimental results.

Phase diagram and collective modes in Rashba spin–orbit coupled BEC: Effect of in-plane magnetic field

We studied the system of pure Rashba spin–orbit coupled Bose gas with an in-plane magnetic field. Based on the mean field theory, we obtained the zero temperature phase diagram of the system which exhibits three phases, plane wave（PW） phase, striped wave（SW） phase, and zero momentum（ZM） phase. It was shown that with a growing in-plane field,both SW and ZM phases will eventually turn into the PW phase. Furthermore, we adopted the Bogoliubov theory to study the excitation spectrum as well as the sound speed.

Interplay between Carrier Polarization, Spin-Orbit Coupling and Exchange Field on Anomalous Hall Conductivity in the Presence of Magnetic Impurity in Mn Doped GaAs

We develop a model Hamiltonian to treat anomalous Hall conductivity in dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS) of type (III, Mn, V) considering the impurity potentials (potential due to interaction of spin of carriers with localized spin of dopant (Mn) and coulomb like potential). Using equation of motion in Green function together with Quantum Kubo-formula of conductivity, the anomalous Hall conductivity is calculated as function of spin-orbit coupling, exchange field and carrier polarization. The calculated result shows that at low impurity concentration, the interplay between spin polarization of carriers, spin-orbit coupling and exchange fields is crucial for existence of anomalous Hall conductivity. The monotonic increment of anomalous Hall conductivity with exchange field is observed for strong spin-orbit coupling limit. In weak spin-orbit coupling limit, the magnitude of anomalous Hall conductivity increases parabolically with the spin-orbit coupling. Our results provide an important basis for understanding the interplay between the spin polarization, spin-orbit coupling, and exchange field on anomalous Hall conductivity at low impurity concentration. The findings are also a key step to realize dissipationless quantum transport without external magnetic field.

Coexistence of giant Rashba spin splitting and quantum spin Hall effect in H–Pb–F

Rashba spin splitting(RSS)and quantum spin Hall effect(QSHE)have attracted enormous interest due to their great significance in the application of spintronics.In this work,we theoretically proposed a new two-dimensional(2D)material H–Pb–F with coexistence of giant RSS and quantum spin Hall effec by using the ab initio calculations.Our results show that H–Pb–F possesses giant RSS(1.21 eV·A)and the RSS can be tuned up to 4.16 e V·A by in-plane biaxial strain,which is a huge value among 2D materials.Furthermore,we also noticed that H–Pb–F is a 2D topological insulator(TI)duo to the strong spin–orbit coupling(SOC)interaction,and the large topological gap is up to 1.35 e V,which is large enough for for the observation of topological edge states at room temperature.The coexistence of giant RSS and quantum spin Hall effect greatly broadens the potential application of H–Pb–F in the field of spintronic devices.

H-Pb-Cl中可调控的巨型Rashba自旋劈裂和量子自旋霍尔效应

具有巨型Rashba自旋劈裂和量子自旋霍尔效应的材料在自旋电子器件应用中具有重要意义.基于第一性原理,提出一种可以将巨型Rashba自旋劈裂和量子自旋霍尔效应实现完美共存的二维(two dimension,2D)六角晶格材料H-Pb-Cl.由于系统空间反转对称性的破坏和本征电场的存在,H-Pb-Cl的电子能带中出现了巨型Rashba自旋劈裂现象(α_(R)=3.78 eV.A).此外,H-Pb-Cl的Rashba自旋劈裂是可以随双轴应力(-16%—16%)调控的.通过分析H-Pb-Cl的电子性质,发现在H-Pb-Cl费米面附近有一个巨大的带隙(1.31 eV),并且体系由于Pb原子的s-p轨道翻转使得拓扑不变量Z_(2)=1,这就表明H-Pb-Cl是一个具有巨大拓扑带隙的2D拓扑绝缘体.我们的研究为探索和实现Rashba自旋劈裂和量子自旋霍尔效应的共存提供了一种优良的潜在候选材料.

Rashba效应对量子线中强耦合束缚极化子性质的影响

采用改进的线性组合算符和幺正变换相结合的方法,研究了Rashba效应对半导体量子线中强耦合束缚极化子性质的影响。计算了Rashba效应的影响下量子线中强耦合束缚极化子的基态能量、有效质量和振动频率。数值分析结果表明:基态能量随库仑束缚势的增加而减少,随受限强度的增加而增大,而且在Rashba效应影响下,基态能量和有效质量比随库仑束缚势的变化曲线由原来的一条分裂为上下两条;振动频率随束缚势、受限强度和耦合强度的增加而加快;有效质量比随库仑束缚势和受限强度的增强而变大。

In_(0.53)Ga_(0.47)As/InP量子阱中的Rashba自旋-轨道耦合

利用k·p方法研究了In0.53Ga0.47As/InP窄禁带半导体量子阱结构中的Rashba自旋-轨道效应及其栅电压调控规律。随着栅电压Vg从-0.35V增加到0V,电子浓度ne从0.99×1011cm-2线性增大至9.20×1011cm-2,Rashba自旋-轨道耦合参数α从2.38×10-11eV·m减小到0.19×10-11eV·m,零场自旋分裂能Δ0高达4.63meV。结果表明通过栅电压可以有效调控样品中的自旋-轨道耦合强度,证明该结构是制备自旋场效应晶体管(SpinFET)的理想材料。

Oscillation of Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction driven by weak electric fields

Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction(DMI) is under extensive investigation considering its crucial status in chiral magnetic orders, such as Néel-type domain wall(DW) and skyrmions. It has been reported that the interfacial DMI originating from Rashba spin–orbit coupling(SOC) can be linearly tuned with strong external electric fields. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate that the strength of DMI exhibits rapid fluctuations, ranging from 10% to 30% of its original value, as a function of applied electric fields in Pt/Co/MgO heterostructures within the small field regime(< 10-2V/nm). Brillouin light scattering(BLS) experiments have been performed to measure DMI, and first-principles calculations show agreement with this observation, which can be explained by the variation in orbital hybridization at the Co/MgO interface in response to the weak electric fields. Our results on voltage control of DMI(VCDMI) suggest that research related to the voltage control of magnetic anisotropy for spin–orbit torque or the motion control of skyrmions might also have to consider the role of the external electric field on DMI as small voltages are generally used for the magnetoresistance detection.

Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质

采用改进的线性组合算符和幺正变换的方法研究了Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质,导出了Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的振动频率、有效质量、基态分裂能和相互作用能.数值计算结果表明随Rashba自旋-轨道耦合常数的增加,由于声子作用产生的附加能量对零磁场时自旋分裂能的影响占有绝对优势.库仑势对束缚极化子的基态能量的影响同时也占有绝对优势.所以,研究Rashba自旋轨道相互作用时声子的影响不可忽略.

Al_(0.6)Ga_(0.4)N/GaN/Al_(0.3)Ga_(0.7)N/Al_(0.6)Ga_(0.4)N量子阱中的Rashba自旋劈裂

正如人们所知,可以通过电场或者设计非对称的半导体异质结构来调控体系的结构反演不对称性(SIA)和Rashba自旋劈裂.本文研究了Al_(0.6)Ga_(0.4)N/GaN/Al_(0.3)Ga_(0.7)N/Al_(0.6)Ga_(0.4)N量子阱中第一子带的Rashba系数和Rashba自旋劈裂随Al_(0.3)Ga_(0.7)N插入层(右阱)的厚度w_s以及外加电场的变化关系,其中GaN层(左阱)的厚度为40-w_s?.发现随着w_s的增加,第一子带的Rashba系数和Rashba自旋劈裂首先增加,然后在w_s>20?时它们迅速减小,但是w_s>30?时Rashba自旋劈裂减小得更快,因为此时k_F也迅速减小.阱层对Rashba系数的贡献最大,界面的贡献次之且随w_s变化不是太明显,垒层的贡献相对比较小.然后,我们假设w_s=20?,发现外加电场可以很大程度上调制该体系的Rashba系数和Rashba自旋劈裂,当外加电场的方向同极化电场方向相同(相反)时,它们随着外加电场的增加而增加(减小).当外加电场从-1.5×10~8V·m^(-1)到1.5×10~8V·m^(-1)变化时,Rashba系数随着外加电场的改变而近似线性变化,Rashba自旋劈裂先增加得很快,然后近似线性增加,最后缓慢增加.研究结果表明可以通过改变GaN层和Al_(0.3)Ga_(0.7)N层的相对厚度以及外加电场来调节Al_(0.6)Ga_(0.4)N/GaN/Al_(0.3)Ga_(0.7)N/Al_(0.6)Ga_(0.4)N量子阱中的Rashba系数和Rashba自旋劈裂,这对于设计自旋电子学器件有些启示.