Half-metal phases in a quantum wire with modulated spin-orbit interaction

Abstract

We propose a spin valve device based on the interplay of a modulated spin-orbit interaction and a uniform external magnetic field acting on a quantum wire. Half-metal phases, where electrons with only a selected spin polarization exhibit ballistic conductance, can be tuned by varying the magnetic field. These half-metal phases are proven to be robust against electron-electron repulsive interactions. Our results arise from a combination of explicit band diagonalization, bosonization techniques and extensive DMRG computations.