2010/07/31 by Stefano Chesi, Daniel Loss · 39 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed matter physics #Coupling (piping) #Electron #Fermi gas #Ferromagnetism #Magnetic properties of thin films #Materials science #Mesoscopic physics #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #RKKY interaction #Rashba effect #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spintronics #Spin–orbit interaction #cond-mat.dis-nn #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.82.165303
published in Physical Review B 82(16) (American Physical Society) · 12 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2010/10/02 · openalex publication_date 2010/10/05 · arxiv updated 2015/05/19 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study theoretically the statistical properties of the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction between localized magnetic moments in a disordered two-dimensional electron gas with both Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings. Averaging over disorder, the static spin susceptibility tensor is evaluated diagrammatically in the mesoscopic (phase-coherent) regime. The disorder-averaged susceptibility leads to a twisted exchange interaction suppressed exponentially with distance, whereas the second-order correlations, which determine the fluctuations (variance) of the RKKY energy, decay with the same power law as in the clean case. We obtain analytic expressions in the limits of large/small spin-orbit interactions and for equal Rashba and Dresselhaus couplings. Beside these limiting cases, we study numerically the variance of the RKKY interaction in the presence of pure Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Our results are relevant for magnetic impurities or nuclear moments embedded in III-V two-dimensional heterostructures or in contact with surface states of metals and metal alloys, which can display a sizable Rashba spin-orbit coupling.