We show that a quantum‐wire device with spin splitting can work as an active spin polarizer. Hot electrons in one ‘‘spin’’ subband (e.g., ‘‘spin up’’) may pass such a device with weak electron pair scattering, while electrons in the opposite subband (‘‘spin down’’) may have high conversion probability into the spin‐up subband, resulting in spin polarization of a hot electron beam. Under different circumstances a hot electron beam passing through a single‐mode quantum wire may induce a steady state magnetization of the background electron gas in a section of the wire weakly coupled to the environment.
REFERENCES
1.
C. W. Beenakker and H. van Houten, Solid State Physics, edited by H. Ehrenreich and D. Turnbull (Academic, San Diego, CA, 1991), Vol. 44, p. 1.
2.
3.
M.
Cardona
, N. E.
Christensen
, and G.
Fasol
, Phys. Rev. Lett.
56
, 2831
(1986
);M.
Cardona
, N. E.
Christensen
, and G.
Fasol
, Phys. Rev. B
38
, 1806
(1988
).4.
G.
Lommer
, F.
Malcher
, and U.
Rössler
, Phys. Rev. Lett.
60
, 728
(1988
).5.
G. Bastard, Wave Mechanics Applied to Semiconductor Heterostructures (Les Editions de Physiques, Les Ulis, 1990).
6.
B.
Jusserand
, D.
Richards
, H.
Peric
, and B.
Etienne
, Phys. Rev. Lett.
69
, 848
(1992
).7.
B.
Das
, D. C.
Miller
, S.
Datta
, R.
Reifenberger
, W. P.
Hong
, P. K.
Bhattacharya
, J.
Singh
, and M.
Jaffe
, Phys. Rev. B
39
, 1411
(1989
).8.
P. D.
Dresselhaus
, C. M. A.
Papavassiliou
, R. G.
Wheeler
, and R. N.
Sacks
, Phys. Rev. Lett.
68
, 106
(1992
).9.
G.
Goldoni
and A.
Fasolino
, Phys. Rev. Lett.
69
, 2567
(1992
).
This content is only available via PDF.
© 1993 American Institute of Physics.
1993
American Institute of Physics
You do not currently have access to this content.
