Enhanced spin Hall effect by tuning antidot potential: Proposal for a spin filter

Abstract

We propose an efficient spin filter including an antidot fabricated on semiconductor heterostructures with strong spin-orbit interaction. The antidot creates a tunable potential on two-dimensional electron gas in the heterostructures, which may be attractive as well as repulsive. Our idea is based on the enhancement of extrinsic spin Hall effect by resonant scattering when the attractive potential is properly tuned. Numerical studies for three- and four-terminal devices indicate that the efficiency of the spin filter can be more than 50% by tuning the potential to the resonant condition.