At this summer school, I have tried to describe a general approach to quantum transport problems based on the Non-equilibrium Green Function (NEGF) method . I will not repeat this treatment here. Instead I will use this article to draw attention to a core issue in quantum transport and how it is modeled within the NEGF method. Specifically, I will discuss what constitutes a dephasing process and how the standard descriptions may need to be extended to include what I will call hot spin effects. These involve a number of subtle issues that tend to get hidden in a purely formal description. So I have chosen instead to illustrate the concepts using a concrete device, which is specially engineered to enhance its sensitivity to spin dephasing and hot spin effects.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0802.2067,
title = {Spin Dephasing and Hot Spins},
author = {Supriyo Datta},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0802.2067},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
This article appeared earlier in the Proceedings of the International School of Physics Enrico Fermi Course CLX. Present version incorporates minor corrections/modifications