We introduce ŝ.n̂ where n̂ = ~r/|~r| which along with the velocity forms a spin-orbit interaction of the order of v/c whereas the usual spin-orbit interaction is of the order of v/c. The effective fractional charges obtained from this interaction are in good agreement with the experimental data of quantum Hall effect. The energy of the system diverges as l → ∞ indicating that there is a phase tra...

Spin-orbit coupling in solids normally originates from the electron motion in the electric field of the crystal. It is key to understanding a variety of spin-transport and topological phenomena, such as Majorana fermions and recently discovered topological insulators. Implementing and controlling spin-orbit coupling is thus highly desirable and could open untapped opportunities for the explorat...

We study the polarization induced via spin-orbit interaction by a magnetic cycloidal order in orthorhombic TbMnO3 using first-principle methods. The case of magnetic spiral lying in the bc plane is analyzed, in which the pure electronic contribution to the polarization is shown to be small. We focus our attention on the lattice-mediated contribution, and study it’s dependence on the Coulomb int...

The spin-orbit interaction in a solid couples the spin of an electron to its momentum. This coupling gives rise to mutual conversion between spin and charge currents: the direct and inverse spin Hall effects. The spin Hall effects have been observed in metals and semiconductors. However, the spin/charge conversion has not been realized in one of the most fundamental semiconductors, silicon, whe...

We investigate the properties of ballistic fin-structured silicon spin field-effect transistors. The spin transistor suggested first by Datta and Das employs spin-orbit coupling to introduce the current modulation. The major contribution to the spin-orbit interaction in silicon films is of the Dresselhaus type due to the interface-induced inversion symmetry breaking. The subband structure in si...

There is significant current interest in spintronic devices fashioned after a spin analog of the electro-optic modulator proposed by Datta and Das [Appl. Phys. Lett., 56, 665 (1990)]. In their modulator, the “modulation” of the spin polarized current is carried out by tuning the Rashba spin-orbit interaction with a gate voltage. Here, we propose an analogous modulator where the modulation is ca...

We elucidate the origin and nature of the D’yakonov-Perel’ spin relaxation in a quantum wire structure, showing (analytically) that there are three necessary conditions for it to exist: (i) transport must be multi-channeled, (ii) there must be a Rashba spin orbit interaction in the wire, and (iii) there must also be a Dresselhaus spin orbit interaction. Therefore, the only effective way to comp...

As nanomagnetic devices scale to smaller sizes, spin-orbit coupling due to the broken structural inversion symmetry at interfaces becomes increasingly important. Here, we study interfacial spin-orbit coupling effects in magnetic bilayers using a simple Rashba model. The spin-orbit coupling introduces chirality into the behavior of the electrons and through them into the energetics of the magnet...

The nature of chemical bonds in heavy main-group diatomics is discussed from the viewpoint of effective bond orders, which are computed from spin-orbit wave functions resulting from spin-orbit configuration interaction calculations. The reliability of the relativistic correlated wave functions obtained in such two-step spin-orbit coupling frameworks is assessed by benchmark studies of the spect...

We present a theoretical study of the spin–orbit interaction impact on electron energy states in small cylindrical and spherical quantum dots. The investigation is based on the effective one-electronic band Hamiltonian and the spin dependent boundary conditions. It has been demonstrated that the spin–orbit interaction can significantly modify the energy spectrum of InAs and InSb quantum dots. T...