Role of the spin-orbit interaction in elastic scattering of electrons in quantum wells

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of the spin-dependent electron scattering from screened impurities in Ill-V semiconductor quantum wells. The effective one band Hamiltonian and the Rashba spin-orbit interaction are used. We calculated the Mott scattering cross-section and the Sherman function for two-dimensional electrons spin-polarized parallel to the z-axis (direction of structure growth). We have found a large spin-dependent asymmetry in the elastic cross-section for electrons scattered from impurities in CdTe/InSb/CdTe symmetrical semiconductor quantum wells. The Sherman function amplitude for repulsive impurities in CdTe/InSb/CdTe quantum wells is predicted to be about 0.01. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.