Electron beam formation from spin-orbit interactions in zincblende semiconductor quantum wells
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2015-05-19 v1
Abstract
We find a dramatic enhancement of electron propagation along a narrow range of real-space angles from an isotropic source in a two-dimensional quantum well made from a zincblende semiconductor. This ``electron beam'' formation is caused by the interplay between spin-orbit interaction originating from a perpendicular electric field to the quantum well and the intrinsic spin-orbit field of the zincblende crystal lattice in a quantum well, in situations where the two fields are different in strength but of the same order of magnitude. Beam formation is associated with caustics and can be described semi-classically using a stationary phase analysis.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1009.1190,
title = {Electron beam formation from spin-orbit interactions in zincblende semiconductor quantum wells},
author = {David H. Berman and Michael E. Flatté},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.1190},
year = {2015}
}