Gate-Control of Spin Precession in Quantum Hall Edge States

Abstract

Electrical control and detection of spin precession are experimentally demonstrated by using spin-resolved edge states in the integer quantum Hall regime. Spin precession is triggered at a corner of a biased metal gate, where electron orbital motion makes a sharp turn leading to a nonadiabatic change in the effective magnetic field via spin-orbit interaction. The phase of precession is controlled by the group velocity of edge-state electrons tuned by gate bias voltage: A spin-FET device is thus realized by all-electrical means, without invoking ferromagnetic material. The effect is also interpreted in terms of a Mach-Zehnder-type spin interferometer.