Anisotropic longitudinal optical conductivity of a spin-orbit coupled system: effect of cubic Dresselhaus coupling

Elmer Cruz; Catalina López-Bastidas; Jesus A. Maytorena

doi:10.1117/12.2238301

4 November 2016 Anisotropic longitudinal optical conductivity of a spin-orbit coupled system: effect of cubic Dresselhaus coupling

Elmer Cruz, Catalina López-Bastidas, Jesus A. Maytorena

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9931, Spintronics IX; 99314A (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2238301
Event: SPIE Nanoscience + Engineering, 2016, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We investigate the effect of the oft-neglected cubic terms of the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling on the longitudinal current response of a two-dimensional electron gas with both Rashba and linear Dresselhaus interactions. Changes caused by these nonlinear-in-momentum terms on the absorption spectrum becomes more notable under SU(2) symmetry conditions, when the Rashba and linear Dresselhaus coupling strengths are tuned to be equal. The longitudinal optical response no longer vanishes then and shows a strong dependence on the direction of the externally applied electric field, giving a signature of the relative size of the several spin-orbits contributions. This anisotropic response arises from the non isotropic splitting of the spin states induced by the interplay of Rashba and Dresselhaus couplings. However, the presence of the cubic terms introduces characteristic spectral features and can modify the overall shape of the spectra for some values of the relative sizes of the spin-orbit parameters. In addition to the control through the driven frequency or electrical gating, this directional aspect of the current response suggests new ways of manipulation and supports the use of interband optics as a sensitive probe of spin-orbit mechanisms in semiconductor spintronics.

Citation Download Citation

Elmer Cruz, Catalina López-Bastidas, and Jesus A. Maytorena "Anisotropic longitudinal optical conductivity of a spin-orbit coupled system: effect of cubic Dresselhaus coupling", Proc. SPIE 9931, Spintronics IX, 99314A (4 November 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2238301

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