Spin separation in cyclotron motion

Abstract

Charged carriers with different spin states are spatially separated in a two-dimensional hole gas. Due to strong spin-orbit interaction holes at the Fermi energy have different momenta for two possible spin states travelling in the same direction and, correspondingly, different cyclotron orbits in a weak magnetic field. Two point contacts, acting as a monochromatic source of ballistic holes and a narrow detector in the magnetic focusing geometry are demonstrated to work as a tunable spin filter.