Non-adiabatic generation of a pure spin current in a 1D quantum ring with spin-orbit interaction

Abstract

We demonstrate the theoretical possibility of obtaining a pure spin current in a 1D ring with spin-orbit interaction by irradiation with a non-adiabatic, two-component terahertz laser pulse, whose spatial asymmetry is reflected by an internal dephasing angle $ϕ$. The stationary solutions of the equation of motion for the density operator are obtained for a spin-orbit coupling linear in the electron momentum (Rashba) and used to calculate the time-dependent charge and spin currents. We find that there are critical values of $ϕ$ at which the charge current disappears, while the spin current reaches a maximum or a minimum value.

8 pages, 5 figures