Electronic equivalence of optical negative refraction and retroreflection in the two-dimensional systems with inhomogeneous spin-orbit couplings

Abstract

The negative refracted transmission and retroreflection of electrons in low-electron-density semiconductors, in the presence of spin-orbit coupling, are theoretically predicted. It is shown that negative electronic transport may occur owing to the occurrence of additional states whose wave vectors are antiparallel to their group velocities. We conclude that the transport emerges as negative in nature in the scattering process if the sign of its ray equation is reversed with respect to that of the incidence's. We demonstrate this finding in the hybrid of two-dimensional electron gases with different Rashba spin-orbit couplings. We also show that the fundamental of negative electric transport is promising to focus a divergent electronic beam in a spintronic sandwich structure with flat surfaces.