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arXiv · 0904.1846

Metal-insulator transition in a quantum wire driven by a modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling

G. I. Japaridze·Henrik Johannesson·Alvaro Ferraz
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Abstract

We study the ground-state properties of electrons confined to a quantum wire and subject to a smoothly modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling. When the period of the modulation becomes commensurate with the band filling, the Rashba coupling drives a quantum phase transition to a nonmagnetic insulating state. Using bosonization and a perturbative renormalization group approach, we find that this state is robust against electron-electron interactions. The gaps to charge- and spin excitations scale with the amplitude of the Rashba modulation with a common interaction-dependent exponent. An estimate of the expected size of the charge gap, using data for a gated InAs heterostructure, suggests that the effect can be put to practical use in a future spin transistor design.

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G. I. Japaridze, Henrik Johannesson, Alvaro Ferraz. 2009-07-28. Metal-insulator transition in a quantum wire driven by a modulated Rashba spin-orbit coupling. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.80.041308

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