Electron spin separation without magnetic field

Abstract

A nanodevice capable of separating spins of two electrons confined in a quantum dot formed in a gated semiconductor nanowire is proposed. Two electrons confined initially in a single quantum dot in the singlet state are transformed into the system of two electrons confined in two spatially separated quantum dots with opposite spins. In order to separate the electrons' spins we exploit transitions between the singlet and the triplet state which are induced by resonantly oscillating Rashba spin-obit coupling strength. The proposed device is all electrically controlled and the electron spin separation can be realized within tens of picoseconds. The results are supported by solving numerically quasi-one-dimensional time-dependent Schroedinger equation for two electrons, where the electron-electron correlations are taken into account in the exact manner.