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Phys. Rev. B 70, 041301(R) (2004) [4 pages]

Transverse electron focusing in systems with spin-orbit coupling

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Gonzalo Usaj and C. A. Balseiro
Instituto Balseiro and Centro Atómico Bariloche, Comisión Nacional de Energia Atómica, 8400 San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina

Received 26 February 2004; published 1 July 2004

We study the transverse electron focusing in a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We show that the interplay between the external magnetic field and the spin-orbit coupling gives two branches of states with different cyclotron radius within the same energy window. This effect generates a splitting of the first focusing peak in two contributions. Each one of these contributions is spin polarized. The surface reflection mixes the two branches and the second focusing peak does not present the same effect. While for GaAs∕AlGaAs heterostructures the effect is small, in systems like InSb∕InAlSb the effect should be clearly observed.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.70.041301
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.70.041301
PACS:
72.25.Dc, 75.47.Jn