Effective one-band approach for the spin splittings in quantum wells

The spin-orbit interaction of two-dimensional electrons in quantum wells grown from the III-V semiconductors consists of two parts with different symmetry: the Bychkov-Rashba and the Dresselhaus terms. The last term is usually attributed to the bulk spin-orbit Hamiltonian which reflects the Td symme...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2017-03, Vol.95 (12), p.125303, Article 125303
Main Authors: Alekseev, P. S., Nestoklon, M. O.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electron spin
Group III-V semiconductors
Quantum wells
Spin-orbit interactions
Symmetry
Zincblende
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The spin-orbit interaction of two-dimensional electrons in quantum wells grown from the III-V semiconductors consists of two parts with different symmetry: the Bychkov-Rashba and the Dresselhaus terms. The last term is usually attributed to the bulk spin-orbit Hamiltonian which reflects the Td symmetry of the zincblende lattice. While it is known that the quantum well interfaces may also contribute to the Dresselhaus term, the exact structure and relative importance of the interface and bulk contributions are not well understood. To deal with this problem, we perform tight-binding calculations of the spin splittings of the electron levels in [100] GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells. We show that the obtained spin splittings can be adequately described within the one-band electron Hamiltonian containing, together with the bulk contribution, the two interface contributions to the Dresselhaus term. The magnitude of the interface contribution to the spin-orbit interaction for sufficiently narrow quantum wells is of the same order as the bulk contribution.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.95.125303