Lateral shift in a spin-orbit-coupling modulated magnetic-barrier nanostructure

Abstract

Spin-dependent Goos–Hänchen（GH）effect of the electron in a magnetic barrier nanostructure modulated by the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is investigated. Two kinds of intrinsic SOCs (Rashba and Dresselhaus types) are taken into account, and spin-dependent lateral shifts are obtained by the transfer matrix method and the stationary phase approximation. The spin-dependent lateral shift is found to be related closely to the SOC. Both magnitude and sign of the spin-polarised lateral shift can be controlled by properly adjusting the strength of Rashba or Dresselhaus SOC. These interesting features can provide an alternative approach to manipulate spin-polarised electrons in the semiconductor, and such a nanostructure can serve as a controllable spatial spin splitter for spintronics applications.

Keywords:

• Goos–Hänchen effect
• magnetic nanostructure
• spin-orbit couplings
• lateral shift
• spatial spin splitter