Spin-transport across a two-dimensional metal-semiconductor interface with infinite potential in presence of spin-orbit interactions: Double refraction and spin-filtering effect

Abstract

The spin-transport across a two-dimensional metal-semiconductor junction with a Dirac-delta function potential at the interface and the Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions in the semiconductor region is studied exactly using discontinuous boundary conditions and the spin-polarized reflected and refracted current density and differential conductance are calculated. It is shown that in the presence of an infinite interface potential, an increase in the incident electron's energy reduces the spin splitting. It is also shown that the reflected and refracted coefficients, the spin-polarized currents and the corresponding differential conductance depend strongly on the spin-orbit interactions. The reflected spin polarization, however, becomes zero due to the infinite potential. The Rashba coupling enhances the refracted spin polarization while the Dresselhaus coupling reduces it. Thus, the maximum in polarization occurs at small values of Dresselhaus coupling and large values Rashba coupling. Interestingly, though the presence of delta-potential at the interface does not change the splitting angle between the spin-up and spin-down electrons, it causes a constant shift in the spin polarization.