Mechanism of half-frequency electric dipole spin resonance in double quantum dots: Effect of nonlinear charge dynamics inside the singlet manifold

Electron dynamics in quantum dots manifests itself in spin-flip spectra through electric dipole spin resonance (EDSR). Near a neutrality point separating two different singlet charged states of a double quantum dot, charge dynamics inside a $2\times2$ singlet manifold can be described by a 1/2-pseudospin. In this region, charge dynamics is highly nonlinear and strongly influenced by flopping its soft pseudospin mode. As a result, the responses to external driving include first and second harmonics of the driving frequency and their Raman satellites shifted by the pseudospin frequency. In EDSR spectra of a spin-orbit couplet doublet dot, they manifest themselves as charge satellites of spin-flip transitions. The theory describes gross features of the anomalous half-frequency EDSR in spin blockade spectra [Laird et al., Semicond. Sci. Techol. {\bf 24}, 064004 (2009)].Comment: One figure, one equation, comments adde

Renormalization of spin-orbit coupling in quantum dots due to Zeeman interaction

We derive analitycally a partial diagonalization of the Hamiltonian representing a quantum dot including spin-orbit interaction and Zeeman energy on an equal footing. It is shown that the interplay between these two terms results in a renormalization of the spin-orbit intensity. The relation between this feature and experimental observations on conductance fluctuations is discussed, finding a good agreement between the model predictions and the experimental behavior.Comment: 4 pages, no figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. B (Brief Report) (2004

Theory of spin injection

Diffusive theory of spin injection is reviewed and a number of new results is presented for the dc and ac regimes. They were derived by means of the "gamma-technique" allowing to simplify the calculations by choosing the spin injection coefficients through different interfaces as the basic variables. The prospects for increasing spin injection by using resistive spin-selective contacts are emphasized and spin non-conserving contacts are introduced. Finding the basic parameters of a junction from the ac data is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 column REVTeX, to be published in Proceedings of Intern. Symposium on Mesoscopic Superconductivity and Spintronics (Atsugi, March 2002

Quantum nanostructures in strongly spin-orbit coupled two-dimensional systems

Recent progress in experimental studies of low-dimensional systems with strong spin-orbit coupling poses a question on the effect of this coupling on the energy spectrum of electrons in semiconductor nanostructures. It is shown in the paper that this effect is profound in the strong coupling limit. In circular quantum dots a soft mode develops, in strongly elongated dots electron spin becomes protected from the effects of the environment, and the lower branch of the energy spectrum of quantum wires becomes nearly flat in a wide region of the momentum space.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Complex impedance of a spin injecting junction

Theory of the ac spin injection from a ferromagnetic electrode into a normal conductor through a tunnel or Schottky contact is developed. Diffusion and relaxation of non-equilibrium spins results in a frequency dependent complex impedance controlled by the spin relaxation rates and the resistances involved. Explicit expression for the impedance is presented. Experimental investigation of the frequency dependence of the impedance should allow measuring spin relaxation times in both conductors, their effective resistances, and also the parameters of the contact controlling the spin injection.Comment: 3 pages, 2 column REVTeX, to appear in Appl. Phys. Let

Evanescent states in 2D electron systems with spin-orbit interaction and spin-dependent transmission through a barrier

We find that the total spectrum of electron states in a bounded 2D electron gas with spin-orbit interaction contains two types of evanescent states lying in different energy ranges. The first-type states fill in a gap, which opens in the band of propagating spin-splitted states if tangential momentum is nonzero. They are described by a pure imaginary wavevector. The states of second type lie in the forbidden band. They are described by a complex wavevector. These states give rise to unusual features of the electron transmission through a lateral potential barrier with spin-orbit interaction, such as an oscillatory dependence of the tunneling coefficient on the barrier width and electron energy. But of most interest is the spin polarization of an unpolarized incident electron flow. Particularly, the transmitted electron current acquires spin polarization even if the distribution function of incident electrons is symmetric with respect to the transverse momentum. The polarization efficiency is an oscillatory function of the barrier width. Spin filtering is most effective, if the Fermi energy is close to the barrier height.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, more general boundary conditions are used, typos correcte

Intrinsic spin dynamics in semiconductor quantum dots

We investigate the characteristic spin dynamics corresponding to semiconductor quantum dots within the multiband envelope function approximation (EFA). By numerically solving an $8\times8$ $k\cdot p$ Hamiltonian we treat systems based on different III-V semiconductor materials.It is shown that, even in the absence of an applied magnetic field, these systems show intrinsic spin dynamics governed by intraband and interband transitions leading to characteristic spin frequencies ranging from the THz to optical frequencies.Comment: to be published in Nanotechnology. Separated figure file

Charge ratchet from spin flip: space-time symmetry paradox

Traditionally the charge ratchet effect is considered as a consequence of either the spatial symmetry breaking engineered by asymmetric periodic potentials, or time asymmetry of the driving fields. Here we demonstrate that electrically and magnetically driven quantum dissipative systems with spin-orbit interactions represent an exception from this standard idea. In contrast to the so far well established belief, a charge ratchet effect appears when both the periodic potential and driving are symmetric. We show that the source of this paradoxical charge ratchet mechanism is the coexistence of quantum dissipation with the spin flip processes induced by spin-orbit interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Sum rules for spin-Hall conductivity cancelation

It has been shown recently that the universal dc spin conductivity of two-dimensional electrons with a Rashba spin-orbit interaction is canceled by vertex corrections in a weak scattering regime. We prove that the zero bulk spin conductivity is an intrinsic property of the free-electron Hamiltonian and scattering is merely a tool to reveal this property in terms of the diagrammatic technique. When Zeeman energy is neglected, the zero dc conductivity persists in a magnetic field. Spin conductivity increases resonantly at the cyclotron frequency and then decays towards the universal value.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Interplay of spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting in the absorption lineshape of 2D fermions

We suggest that electron spin resonance (ESR) experiment can be used as a probe of spinon excitations of hypothetical spin-liquid state of frustrated antiferromagnet in the presence of asymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. We describe assumptions under which the ESR response is reduced to the response of 2D electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Unlike previous treatments, the spin-orbit coupling, \Delta_{SO}, is not assumed small compared to the Zeeman splitting, \Delta_Z. We demonstrate that ESR response diverges at the edges of the absorption spectrum for ac magnetic field perpendicular to the static field. At the compensation point, \Delta_{SO}\approx \Delta_Z, the broad absorption spectrum exhibits features that evolve with temperature, T, even when T is comparable to the Fermi energy.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure