https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2012-30333-6
Regular Article
Interplay of Rashba- and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions in a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas of a finite thickness under in-plane magnetic field
1
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Würzburg,
Am Hubland,
97074
Würzburg,
Germany
2
Institute of Physics, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences,
H. Cavid str. 33,
AZ
1143
Baku,
Azerbaijan
a
e-mail: enver.nakhmedov@physik.uni-wuerzburg.de
Received:
19
April
2012
Received in final form:
2
July
2012
Published online:
5
September
2012
Interplay of Rashba- and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions and in-plane magnetic field is studied in a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas with finite thickness. The transverse confinement is modeled by means of a parabolic potential. An orbital effect of the in-plane magnetic field is shown to mix a transverse quantized spin-up state with nearest-neighboring spin-down states. A controllable changes of the spin-orbital interactions, orbital- and Zeeman effects of the in-plane magnetic field yield a multivalley energy subbands, where a negative differential resistance can be observed. The out-off-plane component of the equilibrium spin current appears to be not zero in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field, provided at least two transverse-quantized levels are filled. In the absence of the magnetic field the obtained results coincide with the well-known results, yielding cubic dependence of the equilibrium spin current on the spin-orbit coupling constants. The persistent spin-current vanishes in the absence of the magnetic field if Rashba- and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coefficients, α and β, are equal each other. In-plane magnetic field destroys this symmetry, and yields a finite spin-current as α → β. Magnetic field is shown to change strongly the equilibrium current of the in-plane spin components, and gives new contributions to the cubic-dependent on spin-orbit constants terms. These new terms depend linearly on the spin-orbit constants.
Key words: Mesoscopic and Nanoscale Systems
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2012