Physics – Condensed Matter – Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Scientific paper
2001-11-08
Physics
Condensed Matter
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
12 pages, 13 embedded EPS figures, substantially enlarged version with some new results and calculational details
Scientific paper
We generalize a Landauer-type formula, using a real$\otimes$spin-space Green function technique, to treat spin-dependent transport in quantum-coherent conductors attached to two ferromagnetic contacts. The formalism is employed to study the properties of components of an exact zero-temperature conductance matrix ${\bf G}$, as well as their mesoscopic fluctuations, describing injection and detection of a spin-polarized current in a two-dimensional system where electrons exhibit an interplay between Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling and phase-coherent propagation through a disordered medium. Strong Rashba coupling leads to a dramatic reduction of localization effects on the conductances and their fluctuations, whose features depend on the spin-polarization of injected electrons. In the limit of weak Rashba interaction antilocalization vanishes (i.e., the sum of the matrix elements of ${\bf G}$ is almost independent of the SO coupling), but the partial spin-resolved conductances can still be non-zero. Besides spin-resolved conductance fluctuations and antilocalization, unusual quantum interference effects are revealed in this system leading to a negative difference between the partial conductances for a parallel and an antiparallel orientation of the contact magnetization, in a range of disorder strengths and for a particular spin-polarization of incoming electron with respect to the direction of Rashba electric field.
Freericks James K.
Nikolic Branislav K.
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