Rashba effect in InGaAs/InP parallel quantum wires -: art. no. 032102

We report on the Rashba effect in InGaAs/InP quantum wires with an effective width ranging from 1.18 mu m down to 210 nm. By measuring 160 wires in parallel universal conductance, fluctuations could be suppressed so that the characteristic beating effect in the magnetorestistance was observable down to very low magnetic fields. A characteristic shift of the nodes in the beating pattern was found for decreasing wire width. By assuming a realistic soft-wall potential, the experimentally observed node positions could be reproduced. For the range of measured wires, our study confirms that the Rashba coupling parameter does not change with wire width.