Spin splitting of two-dimensional states in the conduction band of asymmetric heterostructures: Contribution from the atomically sharp interface

Abstract

The effect of an atomically sharp impenetrable interface on the spin splitting of the spectrum of two-dimensional electrons in heterostructures based on (001) III-V compounds has been analyzed. To this end, the single band Hamiltonian $\Gamma_{6c}$ for envelope functions is supplemented by a general boundary condition taking into account the possibility of the existence of Tamm states. This boundary condition also takes into account the spin-orbit interaction, the asymmetry of a quantum well, and the lack of inversion symmetry in the crystal and contains the single phenomenological length $R$ characterizing the structure of the interface at atomic scales. The model of a quasitriangular well created by the electric field $F$ has been considered. After the unitary transformation to zero boundary conditions, in the modified Hamiltonian interfacial contribution appears, from which the two-dimensional spin Hamiltonian is obtained through averaging over the fast motion along the normal. In the absence of magnetic field $\boldsymbol B$, this contribution is the sum of the Dresselhaus and the Bychkov-Rashba terms with the constants renormalized owing to the interfacial contribution. In the field $\boldsymbol B$ containing the quantizing component $B_z$, the off - diagonal (in cubic axes) components of the $g$-factor tensor are linear functions of $|B_z|$ and the number of the Landau level $N$. The results are in qualitative agreement with the experimental data.