Detection of spin polarized currents in quantum point contacts via transverse electron focusing

A. REYNOSO; GONZALO USAJ; C. A. BALSEIRO

PHYSICAL REVIEW B

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2007 vol. 75 p. 85321 - 85321

1098-0121

It has been predicted recently that an electron beam can be polarized when it flows adiabatically through a quantum point contact in a system with spin-orbit interaction. Here, we show that a simple transverse electron focusing setup can be used to detect such polarized current. It uses the amplitude's asymmetry of the spin-split transverse electron focusing peak to extract information about the electron's spin polarization. On the other hand, and depending on the quantum point contact geometry, including this one-body effect can be important when using the focusing setup to study many-body effects in quantum point contacts.