Towards a dephasing diode: asymmetric and geometric dephasing.
We study the effect of a noisy environment on spin and charge transport in ballistic quantum wires with spin-orbit coupling (Rashba coupling). We find that the wire then acts as a dephasing diode, inducing very different dephasing of the spins of right and left movers. We also show how Berry phase (geometric phase) in a curved wire can induce such asymmetric dephasing, in addition to purely geometric dephasing. We propose ways to measure these effects through spin detectors, spin-echo techniques, and Aharanov-Bohm interferometry.
Institut Laue-Langevin, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, B.P. 156, 38042 Grenoble, France.
Robert S
RS
Whitney
Alexander
A
Shnirman
Yuval
Y
Gefen