title: Proposed nonmagnetic Stern-Gerlach experiment using electron diffraction.
abstract: We demonstrate that a transverse spin current can be generated simply by diffraction through a single slit in the spin-orbit coupling system of the two-dimensional electron gas. In the regime of spin-orbit coupling ~10(-13) eV·m, an out-of-plane component of the electron spin of up to 0.42ħ can be generated. Based on this effect, a novel device consisting of a grating to distill spin is designed. Two first diffraction peaks of electron carry different spins, providing a nonmagnetic version of the Stern-Gerlach experiment. The direction of the spin current can be controlled by the gate voltage with low energy cost.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan. chchern@ntu.edu.tw
authors.forename: Chyh-Hong
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chern
authors.forename: Cheng-Ju
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Chi-Te
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Liang