Comments on "Spin-dependent tunneling through a symmetric semiconductor barrier: The Dresselhaus effect"

Abstract

In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. B 72, 153314 (2005)], the $k^{3}$-Dresselhaus term in the contacts and the full form of the current operator are considered for spin-dependent tunneling through a symmetric barrier. The authors found that the full form of the current operator has a much larger influence on the spin polarization than it was initially thought. In this Comment we will show that their treatment of the other problem, the $k^{3}$-Dresselhaus term in the contacts, is incorrect. Their proposed solution in the contacts simply does not obey the Schr\"{o}dinger equation. In this context we also comment on the definition and the suitability of spin polarization in contacts with spin-orbit coupling.