Spin chaos manifestation in a driven quantum billiard with spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

The coupling of orbital and spin degrees of freedom is the source of many interesting phenomena. Here, we study the electron dynamics in a quantum billiard --a mesoscopic rectangular quantum dot-- with spin-orbit coupling driven by a periodic electric field. We find that both the spatial and temporal profiles of the observables demonstrate the transition to chaotic dynamics with qualitative modifications of the power spectra and patterns of probability and spin density. The time dependence of the wavefunctions and spin density distributions indicates spin-charge separation {seen in the decay of the spin-charge density correlators}. This new spin chaos effect can be experimentally verified leading to a better understanding of the interplay between spin and spatial degrees of freedom, relevant to fundamental and applied quantum physics.