We investigate the low-temperature magneto-transport properties of individual Ge/Si core/shell nanowires. Negative magneto-conductance was observed, which is a signature of one-dimensional weak antilocalization of holes in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling. The temperature and back gate dependences of phase coherence length, spin-orbit relaxation time, and background conductance were studied. Specifically, we show the spin-orbit coupling strength can be modulated by more than five folds with an external electric field. These results suggest the Ge/Si nanowire system possesses strong and tunable spin-orbit interactions and may serve as a candidate for spintronics applications.
@article{arxiv.1008.1882,
title = {Strong and Tunable Spin-Orbit Coupling of One-Dimensional Holes in Ge/Si Core/Shell Nanowires},
author = {Xiao-Jie Hao and Tao Tu and Gang Cao and Cheng Zhou and Hai-Ou Li and Guang-Can Guo and Wayne Y. Fung and Zhongqing Ji and Guo-Ping Guo and Wei Lu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1008.1882},
year = {2010}
}