Spin Hall and Edelstein effects in a ballistic quantum dot with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
We study spin-resolved transport in a ballistic quantum dot with Rashba spin–orbit coupling, focusing on charge-to-spin conversion and spin Hall effect. In the regime where the dot size is comparable to the Fermi wavelength, we identify a clear crossover from a resonance-mediated weak localization regime to weak antilocalization regime as the Rashba coupling increases. This transition is accompanied by gate-tunable spin currents of Edelstein and spin Hall type, whose behavior reflects the underlying electron wavefunction interference. Notably, the Edelstein current shows an inflection point at the critical Rashba strength, signaling the crossover from weak localization to weak antilocalization. In the presence of an in-plane magnetic field we also report a transition in angular periodicity of the magnetoresistance –from \pi <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>π</mml:mi> </mml:math> to 2\pi <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mi>π</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> – arising from the interplay between spin–orbit interaction and Zeeman coupling. These results establish a direct link between quantum coherence, charge-to-spin conversion, and geometric confinement in mesoscopic systems.
Authors
- B. Szafran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6938-3247)
- M. Salluzzo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8372-6963)
- N. Bergeal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9016-5305)
- Mattia Trama (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5032-7974)
- C. A. Perroni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3316-6782)
- Jacopo Settino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7425-4594)
- Alfonso Maiellaro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8539-9564)
- Pawel Wójcik
- Daniela Stornaiuolo
- Roberta Citro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3896-4759)
- Thomas Sand Jaspersen
- Manuel Bibes
- Francesco Romeo
- Claudio Guarcello (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3683-2509)
Institutions
- University of Salerno (IT)
- Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- Laboratoire de Physique et d’Étude des Matériaux (FR)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Napoli (IT)
- National Research Council (RO)
- University of Calabria (IT)
- AGH University of Krakow (PL)
- University of Naples Federico II (IT)
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
- ESPCI Paris (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- SciPost Physics
- Published
- 2026-05-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.21468/scipostphys.20.5.144
- Primary Topic
- Quantum and electron transport phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca
- HORIZON EUROPE European Innovation Council
- NextGenerationEU