Orbital magnetic phase and pure persistent spin current in spin-orbit coupling mesoscopic rings

State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Material and Technology and School of Physics and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University - Guangzhou, 510275, PRC

Corresponding author: stslsd@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Received: 23 February 2009
Accepted: 2 June 2009

Abstract

By solving the Rashba model of mesoscopic rings, we give analytically the ground-state properties of the ring, including the spin polarization, the persistent charge and spin currents (PCC and PSC). These ground-state properties can be given based on four kinds of electron numbers in rings. The effect of the self-inductance of the ring leads to the self-sustained magnetic flux (SSMF) and the self-sustained PCC and PSC, which break spontaneously time-reversal symmetry to form orbital magnetic phase (OMP). To tune the spin-orbit coupling strength or electron number of the ring can induce the phase transition between the OMP and non-OMP. For exact one-dimensional rings we find the coexistence of the pure PSC and SSMF. This property of the pure PSC may provide a new scheme to measure the pure PSC.