Non-ballistic spin field-effect transistor

Abstract

We propose a spin field-effect transistor based on spin-orbit (s-o) coupling of both the Rashba and the Dresselhaus types. Differently from earlier proposals, spin transport through our device is tolerant against spin-independent scattering processes. Hence the requirement of strictly ballistic transport can be relaxed. This follows from a unique interplay between the Dresselhaus and the (gate-controlled) Rashba interactions; these can be tuned to have equal strengths thus yielding k-independent eigenspinors even in two dimensions. We discuss implementations with two-dimensional devices and quantum wires. In the latter, our setup presents strictly parabolic dispersions which avoids complications arising from anticrossings of different bands.

4 pages, 2 figures included