21 research outputs found
A prohibition of equilibrium spin currents in multi-terminal ballistic devices
We show that in the multi-terminal ballistic devices with intrinsic
spin-orbit interaction connected to normal metal contacts there are no
equilibrium spin currents present at any given electron energy. Obviously, this
statement holds also after the integration over all occupied states. Based on
the proof of this fact, a number of scenarios involving nonequilibrium spin
currents is identified and further analyzed. In particular, it is shown that an
arbitrary two-terminal device cannot polarize transient current. The same is
true for the output terminal of an N-terminal device when all N-1 inputs are
connected in parallel.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure; presented at the DARPA SPinS review (#Th-19), San
Francisco, CA, October 25-28, 200
Tunneling into fractional quantum Hall liquids
Motivated by the recent experiment by Grayson et.al., we investigate a
non-ohmic current-voltage characteristics for the tunneling into fractional
quantum Hall liquids. We give a possible explanation for the experiment in
terms of the chiral Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory. We study the interaction
between the charge and neutral modes, and found that the leading order
correction to the exponent is of the order of
, which reduces the exponent . We
suggest that it could explain the systematic discrepancy between the observed
exponents and the exact dependence.Comment: Latex, 5 page
Spontaneous spin-polarized current in a nonuniform Rashba interaction system
We investigate the electron transport through a two-dimensional semiconductor
with a nonuniform Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Due to the combination of the
coherence effect and the Rashba interaction, a spontaneous spin-polarized
current emerges in the absence of any magnetic material and magnetic field. For
a two-terminal device, only the local current contains polarization; however,
with a four-terminal setup, a polarized total current is produced. This
phenomenon may offer a novel way for generating a spin-polarized current,
replacing the traditional spin-injection method.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Quantum transport theory for nanostructures with Rashba spin-orbital interaction
We report on a general theory for analyzing quantum transport through devices
in the Metal-QD-Metal configuration where QD is a quantum dot or the device
scattering region which contains Rashba spin-orbital and electron-electron
interactions. The metal leads may or may not be ferromagnetic, they are assumed
to weakly couple to the QD region. Our theory is formulated by second
quantizing the Rashba spin-orbital interaction in spectral space (instead of
real space), and quantum transport is then analyzed within the Keldysh
nonequilibrium Green's function formalism. The Rashba interaction causes two
main effects to the Hamiltonian: (i) it gives rise to an extra spin-dependent
phase factor in the coupling matrix elements between the leads and the QD; (ii)
it gives rise to an inter-level spin-flip term but forbids any intra-level
spin-flips. Our formalism provides a starting point for analyzing many quantum
transport issues where spin-orbital effects are important. As an example, we
investigate transport properties of a Aharnov-Bohm ring in which a QD having
Rashba spin-orbital and e-e interactions is located in one arm of the ring. A
substantial spin-polarized conductance or current emerges in this device due to
a combined effect of a magnetic flux and the Rashba interaction. The direction
and strength of the spin-polarization are shown to be controllable by both the
magnetic flux and a gate voltage.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
Random-phase Approximation Treatment Of Edge Magnetoplasmons: Edge-state Screening And Nonlocality
A random-phase approximation (RPA) treatment of edge magnetoplasmons (EMP) is
presented for strong magnetic fields, low temperatures, and integer filling
factors \nu. It is valid for negligible dissipation and lateral confining
potentials smooth on the scale of the magnetic length \ell_{0} but sufficiently
steep that the Landau-level (LL) flattening can be neglected. LL coupling,
screening by edge states, and nonlocal contributions to the current density are
taken into account. In addition to the fundamental mode with typical dispersion
relation \omega\sim q_x \ln(q_{x}), fundamental modes with {\it acoustic}
dispersion relation \omega\sim q_x are obtained for \nu>2. For \nu=1,2 a {\bf
dipole} mode exists, with dispersion relation \omega\sim q_x^3, that is
directly related to nonlocal responses.Comment: Text 12 pages in Latex/Revtex format, 4 Postscript figure
Renormalization group approach of itinerant electron systems near the Lifshitz point
Using the renormalization approach proposed by Millis for the itinerant
electron systems we calculated the specific heat coefficient for
the magnetic fluctuations with susceptibility near the Lifshitz point. The constant value
obtained for and the logarithmic temperature dependence, specific
for the non-Fermi behavior, have been obtained in agreement with the
experimental dat.Comment: 6 pages, Revte
Magnetic field influence on the proximity effect in semiconductor - superconductor hybrid structures and their thermal conductance
We show that a magnetic field can influnce the proximity effect in NS
junctions via diamagnetic screening current flowing in the superconductor.
Using ballistic quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) electron channels as an example, we
show that the supercurrent flow shifts the proximity-induced minigap in the
excitation spectrum of a Q1D system from the Fermi level to higher
quasiparticle energies. Thermal conductance of a Q1D channel (normalized by
that of a normal Q1D ballistic system) is predicted to manifest such a spectral
feature as a nonmonotonic behavior at temperatures corresponding to the energy
of excitation into the gapful part of the spectrum.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, revised version with a new titl
Collective Edge Excitations In The Quantum Hall Regime: Edge Helicons And Landau-level Structure
Based on a microscopic evaluation of the local current density, a treatment
of edge magnetoplasmons (EMP) is presented for confining potentials that allow
Landau level (LL) flattening to be neglected. Mode damping due to
electron-phonon interaction is evaluated. For nu=1, 2 there exist independent
modes spatially symmetric or antisymmetric with respect to the edge. Certain
modes, changing shape during propagation, are nearly undamped even for very
strong dissipation and are termed edge helicons.
For nu > 2 inter-LL Coulomb coupling leads to a strong repulsion of the
decoupled LL fundamental modes. The theory agrees well with recent experiments.Comment: 4 pages in Latex/Revtex/two-column format, 3 ps figure
Spin transport of electrons through quantum wires with spatially-modulated strength of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction
We study ballistic transport of spin-polarized electrons through quantum
wires in which the strength of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) is
spatially modulated. Subband mixing, due to SOI, between the two lowest
subbands is taken into account. Simplified approximate expressions for the
transmission are obtained for electron energies close to the bottom of the
first subband and near the value for which anticrossing of the two lowest
subbands occurs. In structures with periodically varied SOI strength, {\it
square-wave} modulation on the spin transmission is found when only one subband
is occupied and its possible application to the spin transistor is discussed.
When two subbands are occupied the transmission is strongly affected by the
existence of SOI interfaces as well as by the subband mixing
Theory of finite temperature crossovers near quantum critical points close to, or above, their upper-critical dimension
A systematic method for the computation of finite temperature () crossover
functions near quantum critical points close to, or above, their upper-critical
dimension is devised. We describe the physics of the various regions in the
and critical tuning parameter () plane. The quantum critical point is at
, , and in many cases there is a line of finite temperature
transitions at , with . For the relativistic,
-component continuum quantum field theory (which describes lattice
quantum rotor () and transverse field Ising () models) the upper
critical dimension is , and for , is the control
parameter over the entire phase diagram. In the region , we obtain an expansion for coupling constants which then are
input as arguments of known {\em classical, tricritical,} crossover functions.
In the high region of the continuum theory, an expansion in integer powers
of , modulo powers of , holds for all
thermodynamic observables, static correlators, and dynamic properties at all
Matsubara frequencies; for the imaginary part of correlators at real
frequencies (), the perturbative expansion describes
quantum relaxation at or larger, but fails for or smaller. An important principle,
underlying the whole calculation, is the analyticity of all observables as
functions of at , for ; indeed, analytic continuation in is
used to obtain results in a portion of the phase diagram. Our method also
applies to a large class of other quantum critical points and their associated
continuum quantum field theories.Comment: 36 pages, 4 eps figure