2007/05/31 by U. Zülicke, U. Zuelicke, J. Bolte +2 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Charge (physics) #Charge carrier #Condensed matter physics #Cyclotron #Cyclotron resonance #Electron #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #Magnetic field #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Rashba effect #Semiclassical physics #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spin Hall effect #Spin polarization #Spintronics #Zeeman effect #Zitterbewegung #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/9/9/355
published as New J. Phys. 9, 355 (2007) · 14 pages, 2 figures, IOP style, v2: minor changes, to appear in NJP Focus Issue on Spintronics
arxiv created 2007/08/29 · openalex publication_date 2007/09/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present a theoretical study of the interplay between cyclotron motion and spin splitting of charge carriers in solids. While many of our results apply more generally, we focus especially on the Rashba model describing electrons in the conduction band of asymmetric semiconductor heterostructures. Appropriate semiclassical limits are distinguished that describe various situations of experimental interest. Our analytical formulae, which take full account of Zeeman splitting, are used to analyse recent magnetic-focusing data. Surprisingly, it turns out that the Rashba effect can dominate the splitting of cyclotron orbits even when the Rashba and Zeeman spin-splitting energies are of the same order. We also find that the origin of spin-dependent cyclotron motion can be traced back to Zitterbewegung (ZB)-like oscillatory dynamics of charge carriers from spin-split bands. The relation between the two phenomena is discussed, and we estimate the effect of ZB-related corrections to the charge carriers' canonical position.