We apply the Wigner function formalism to derive drift-diffusion transport equations for spin-polarized electrons in a III–V semiconductor single quantum well. The electron spin dynamics is controlled by the spin–orbit interaction which is linear in the momentum. In the transport regime studied, the electron momentum scattering rate is appreciably faster than the spin dynamics. A set of transpo...

BACKGROUND Non-equilibrium charge transport in superconductors has been investigated intensely in the 1970s and 1980s, mostly in the vicinity of the critical temperature. Much less attention has been paid to low temperatures and the role of the quasiparticle spin. RESULTS We report here on nonlocal transport in superconductor hybrid structures at very low temperatures. By comparing the nonloc...

This article discusses spin transport in systems with spin-orbit interactions and how it can be understood in a semiclassical picture. I will first present a semiclassical wave-packet description of spin transport, which explains how the microscopic motion of carriers gives rise to a spin current. Due to spin non-conservation the definition of the spin current has some arbitrariness. In the sec...

Most future information processing techniques using electron spins in non-magnetic semiconductors will require both the manipulation and transfer of spins without their coherence being lost. The spin-orbit effective magnetic field induced by drifting electrons enables us to rotate the electron spins in the absence of an external magnetic field. However, the fluctuations in the effective magneti...

Selected problems of fundamental importance for spintronics and spin-polarized transport are reviewed, some of them with a special emphasis on their applications in quantum computing and coherent control of quantum dynamics. The role of the solid-state environment in the decoherence of electron spins is discussed. In particular, the limiting effect of the spin-orbit interaction on spin relaxati...

Spintronics relies on the ability to transport and use the spin properties of an electron rather than its charge. We describe a spin ratchet at the single-electron level that produces spin currents with no net bias or charge transport. Our device is based on the ground-state energetics of a single-electron transistor comprising a superconducting island connected to normal leads via tunnel barri...

Spintronics relies on the ability to transport and utilize the spin properties of an electron rather than its charge. We describe a spin rachet at the singleelectron level that produces spin currents with no net bias or charge transport. Our device is based on the ground state energetics of a single electron transistor comprising a superconducting island connected to normal leads via tunnel bar...

The elimination of extrinsic sources of spin relaxation is key to realizing the exceptional intrinsic spin transport performance of graphene. Toward this, we study charge and spin transport in bilayer graphene-based spin valve devices fabricated in a new device architecture that allows us to make a comparative study by separately investigating the roles of the substrate and polymer residues on ...