2006/06/06 by R. Citro, F. Romeo, Francesco Romeo
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Semiconductor materials and devices #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.73.233304
published as Phys. Rev. B 73, 233304 (2006) · PRB, to appear
arxiv created 2006/06/06 · openalex publication_date 2006/06/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate parametric pumping of spin and charge currents in a mesoscopic ring interrupted by a tunnel barrier in presence of Aharonov-Casher (AC) effect and Aharonov-Bohm (AB) flux along the axis of the same ring. Generation of a dc current is achieved by tuning the tunnel barrier strength and modulating in time either a radial(transverse) electric field or the magnetic flux. A pure spin current is generated by the interplay of breaking spin reversal symmetry, due to the AC effect, and time-reversal symmetry breaking, intrinsic in the parametric pumping procedure. We analyze the conditions for operating the AB-AC ring as a pure spin pump useful in spintronics and discuss the generalization of our results to Rashba-gate-controlled rings.