Transport of spin-polarized electrons in a magnetic superlattice

J. Liu, Peking University, Beijing, China
W. Deng, South China University of Science and Technology, China
K. Xia, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
C. Zhang, University of Wollongong
Z. Ma, Peking University, China

Article comments

This article was originally published as: Liu, JF, Deng, WJ, Xia, K, Zhang, C & Ma, Z, Transport of spin-polarized electrons in a magnetic superlattice, Physical Review B, 2006, 73, 155309. Copyright 2006 American Physical Society. The original journal can be found here.

Abstract

We investigated the ballistic transport of two-dimensional electrons subjected to a periodically modulated magnetic field in the presence of the spin-orbit coupling of both the Rashba and the Dresselhaus types. It is shown that the spin splitting leads to additional gaps in the band structure and a series of minima in the transmission probability. The boundaries of the superlattice cause a finite spin polarization which can be tuned by the magnetic field, the electronic energy, and the superlattice period. The potential of such magnetic modulated structures as spin filters is discussed.