Effect of Spin-Orbit Interaction and In-Plane Magnetic Field on the Conductance of a Quasi-One-Dimensional System

Yuriy V. Pershin, James A. Nesteroff, Vladimir Privman

Published 2003-11-07, updated 2004-02-18Version 3

We study the effect of spin-orbit interaction and in-plane effective magnetic field on the conductance of a quasi-one-dimensional ballistic electron system. The effective magnetic field includes the externally applied field, as well as the field due to polarized nuclear spins. The interplay of the spin-orbit interaction with effective magnetic field significantly modifies the band structure, producing additional sub-band extrema and energy gaps, introducing the dependence of the sub-band energies on the field direction. We generalize the Landauer formula at finite temperatures to incorporate these special features of the dispersion relation. The obtained formula describes the conductance of a ballistic conductor with an arbitrary dispersion relation.