Quantum nanostructures in strongly spin-orbit coupled two-dimensional systems

Recent progress in experimental studies of low-dimensional systems with strong spin-orbit coupling poses a question on the effect of this coupling on the energy spectrum of electrons in semiconductor nanostructures. It is shown in this paper that this effect is profound in the strong coupling limit. In circular quantum dots a soft mode develops, in strongly elongated dots electron spin becomes protected from the effects of the environment, and the lower branch of the energy spectrum of quantum wires becomes nearly flat in a wide region of the momentum space.