Metal-insulator transition in a quantum wire driven by a modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Details Metal-insulator transition in a quantum wire driven by a modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling Metal-insulator transition in a quantum wire driven by a modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling

2009-04-13

arxiv.org/abs/0904.1846v2

Phys. Rev. B 80, 041308(R) (2009)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

4 pages; published version (added references, typos corrected)

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevB.80.041308

We study the ground-state properties of electrons confined to a quantum wire and subject to a smoothly modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling. When the period of the modulation becomes commensurate with the band filling, the Rashba coupling drives a quantum phase transition to a nonmagnetic insulating state. Using bosonization and a perturbative renormalization group approach, we find that this state is robust against electron-electron interactions. The gaps to charge- and spin excitations scale with the amplitude of the Rashba modulation with a common interaction-dependent exponent. An estimate of the expected size of the charge gap, using data for a gated InAs heterostructure, suggests that the effect can be put to practical use in a future spin transistor design.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Metal-insulator transition in a quantum wire driven by a modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Metal-insulator transition in a quantum wire driven by a modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Metal-insulator transition in a quantum wire driven by a modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-323756