Rashba interaction in quantum wires with in-plane magnetic fields

Abstract

We analyze the spectral and transport properties of ballistic quasi one-dimensional systems in the presence of spin-orbit coupling and in-plane agnetic fields. Our results demonstrate that Rashba precession and intersubband coupling must be treated on equal footing for wavevectors near the magnetic field induced gaps. We find that intersubband coupling limits the occurrence of negative effective masses at the gap edges and modifies the linear conductance curves in the strong coupling limit. The effect of the magnetic field on the spin textured orientation of the wire magnetization is discussed.