2001/11/08 by Branislav K. Nikolic, Branislav K. Nikolić, Nikolic, Branislav K. +2
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0111144
12 pages, 13 embedded EPS figures, substantially enlarged version with some new results and calculational details
openalex publication_date 2001/11/08 · arxiv created 2003/02/05 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We generalize a Landauer-type formula, using a real⊗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.