Transverse Electron Focusing in Systems with Spin-Orbit Coupling

Abstract

We study the transverse electron focusing in a two dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We show that the interplay between the external magnetic field and the spin-orbit coupling gives two branches of states with different cyclotron radius within the same energy window. This effect generates a splitting of the first focusing peak in two contributions. Each one of these contributions is spin polarized. The surface reflection mixes the two branches and the second focusing peak does not present the same effect. While for GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures the effect is small, in systems like InSb/InAlSb the effect should be clearly observed.