Spin current diode based on an electron waveguide with spin-orbit interaction

We propose a spin current diode which can work even in a small applied bias condition (the linear-response regime). The prototypal device consists of a hornlike electron waveguide with Rashba spin-orbit interaction, which is connected to two leads with different widths. It is demonstrated that when electrons are incident from the narrow lead, the generated spin conductance fluctuates around a constant value in a wide range of incident energy. When the transport direction is reversed, the spin conductance is suppressed strongly. Such a remarkable difference arises from spin-flipped transitions caused by the spin-orbit interaction. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.