The inversion symmetry breaking at the interface between different materials generates a strong interfacial spin-orbit coupling (ISOC) that may influence the spin and charge transport in hybrid structures. Here we use a simple analytically solvable model to study in the ballistic approximation various spin transport phenomena induced by ISOC in a bilayer metallic system. In this model a non-equilibrium steady state carrying a spin current is created by applying a spin dependent bias across the metallic junction. Physical observables are then calculated using the scattering matrix approach. In particular we calculate the absorption of the spin current at the interface (the interface spin-loss) and study the interface spin-to-charge conversion. The latter consists of an in-plane interface charge current generated by the spin dependent bias applied to the junction, which can be viewed as a spin galvanic effect mediated by ISOC. Finally we demonstrate that ISOC leads to an interfacial spin current swapping, that is, the "primary" spin current flowing through the spin-orbit active interface is necessarily accompanied with a "secondary' swapped spin current flowing along the interface and polarized in the direction perpendicular to that of the "primary" current. Using the exact spin continuity equation we relate the swapping effect to the intefacial spin-loss, and argue that this effect is generic and independent on the ballistic approximation used for specific calculations.
We have realized a Dirac fermion reflector in graphene by controlling the ballistic carrier trajectory in a sawtooth-shaped npn junction. When the carrier density in the inner p-region is much larger than that in the outer n-regions, the first straight np interface works as a collimator and the collimated ballistic carriers can be totally reflected at the second zigzag pn interface. We observed clear resistance enhancement around the np+n regime, which is in good agreement with the numerical simulation. The tunable reflectance of ballistic carriers could be an elementary and important step for…
We show that engineering of tunnel barriers forming at the interfaces of a one-dimensional spin valve provides a viable path to a strong gate-voltage tunability of the magnetoresistance effect. In particular, we investigate theoretically a carbon nanotube (CNT) spin valve in terms of the influence of the CNT-contact interface on the performance of the device. The focus is on the strength and the spin selectivity of the tunnel barriers that are modelled as Dirac-delta potentials. The scattering matrix approach is used to derive the transmission coefficient that yields the tunneling magnetoresis…
The potential barrier height at the interface formed by a metal contact and multiple one-dimensional (1D) quasi-ballistic channels in field-effect transistors (FETs) is evaluated across different carbon nanotube and nanowire device technologies by means of a Landauer-Büttiker-based extraction methodology (LBM) adapted for multiple 1D-channels. The extraction methodology yields values for an effective Schottky barrier height and a gate coupling coefficient, an indicator of the device working at the quantum capacitance limit. The novel LBM-based approach embracing the mechanisms in 1D electronic…
Spin-orbit interactions are known to have drastic effects on the band structure of heavy-element-based materials. Celebrated examples are the recently identified 3D and 2D topological insulators. In those systems transport takes place at surfaces or along edges, and spin-momentum locking provides protection against (non-magnetic) impurity scattering, favoring spin-polarized ballistic transport. We have used the measurement of the current phase relation of a micrometer-long single crystal bismuth nanowire connected to superconducting electrodes, to demonstrate that transport occurs ballisticall…
Spin Hall and Edelstein effects in a ballistic quantum dot with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
CNR-SPIN（意大利国家研究委员会自旋物理研究所）；Università di Salerno（萨莱诺大学）；Dipartimento di Fisica ”E.R. Caianiello”, Università di Salerno（萨莱诺大学埃·R·卡亚涅洛物理系）；INFN, Sezione di Napoli, Gruppo collegato di Salerno（意大利国家核物理研究所那不勒斯分部萨莱诺协作组）；Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria（卡拉布里亚大学物理系）；Dipartimento di Fisica Ettore Pancini, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学埃托雷·潘奇尼物理系）；AGH University of Krakow, Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science（克拉科夫AGH科技大学物理与应用计算机科学系）
We report on measurements of quantized conductance in gate-defined quantum point contacts in bilayer graphene that allow the observation of subband splittings due to spin-orbit coupling. The size of this splitting can be tuned from 40 to 80 $μ$eV by the displacement field. We assign this gate-tunable subband-splitting to a gap induced by spin-orbit coupling of Kane-Mele type, enhanced by proximity effects due to the substrate. We show that this spin-orbit coupling gives rise to a complex pattern in low perpendicular magnetic fields, increasing the Zeeman splitting in one valley and suppressing…
We report the study of ballistic transport in normal metal/graphene/superconductor junctions in edge-contact geometry. While in the normal state, we have observed Fabry-Pérot resonances suggesting that charge carriers travel ballistically, the superconducting state shows that the Andreev reflection at the graphene/superconductor interface is affected by these interferences. Our experimental results in the superconducting state have been analyzed and explained with a modified Octavio-Tinkham-Blonder-Klapwijk model taking into account the magnetic pair-breaking effects and the two different inte…
Electric-field effect control of two-dimensional electron gases (2-DEG) has enabled the exploration of nanoscale electron quantum transport in semiconductors. Beyond these classical materials, transition metal-oxide-based structures have d-electronic states favoring the emergence of novel quantum orders absent in conventional semiconductors. In this context, the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface that combines gate-tunable superconductivity and sizeable spin-orbit coupling is emerging as a promising platform to realize topological superconductivity. However, the fabrication of nanodevices in which the el…
Rashba spin orbit torque derived from the broken inversion symmetry at ferromagnet/heavy metal interfaces has potential application in spintronic devices. In conventional description of the precessional and damping components of the Rashba spin orbit torque in magnetization textures, the decomposition coefficients are assumed to be independent of the topology of the underlying structure. Contrary to this common wisdom, for Schrödinger electrons trespassing ballistically across a magnetic domain wall, we found that the decomposition coefficient of the damping component is determined by the topo…
A semi-analytical model for studying thermal transport at the nanoscale, able to accurately describe both the effect of out of equilibrium transport and the thermal transfer at interfaces, is presented. Our approach is based on the definition of pseudo local temperatures distinguishing the phonon populations according to the direction of their velocity. This formalism leads to a complete set of equations capturing the heat transfer in nanostructures even in the case of hetero-structures. This model only requires introducing a new intrinsic thermal parameter called ballistic thermal conductance…
Ballistic atomic transport in narrow carbon nanotubes
Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学）；Griffith University（格里菲斯大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Ottica del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche（意大利国家光学研究所）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova（意大利国家核物理研究所帕多瓦分部）
Transport in topological matter has shown a variety of novel phenomena over the last decade. Although numerous transport studies have been conducted on three-dimensional topological insulators (3D-TIs), study of ballistic motion and thus exploration of potential landscapes on a hundred nanometer scale is for the prevalent TI materials almost impossible due to their low carrier mobility. Therefore it is unknown whether helical Dirac electrons in TIs, bound to interfaces between topologically distinct materials, can be manipulated on the nanometer scale by local gates or locally etched regions. …
In ferromagnetic nanostructures, the ballistic anisotropic magnetoresistance (BAMR) is a change in the ballistic conductance with the direction of magnetization due to spin-orbit interaction. Very recently, a directional dependent ballistic conductance has been predicted to occur in a number of newly synthesized nonmagnetic semiconducting nanostructures subject to externally applied magnetic fields, without necessitating spin-orbit coupling. In this article, we review past works on the prediction of this BAMR effect in core-shell nanowires and rolled-up nanotubes. This is complemented by new r…
