Charge pumping of spin-orbit-coupled holes

What is it about?

Switching on an electrical device usually means connecting it to some voltage source such as a battery or wall socket. As the size of wires and transistors shrinks to the nano-meter scale , new possibilities open up to move electrons around. We have investigated an exotic type of quantum charge pump that relies on the fact that electrons not only carry charge but are also tiny permanent magnets by virtue of an internal property called spin.

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Why is it important?

Our work shows how quantum charge pumps can exploit the coupling between electrons' motion and their magnetic moment - the so-called spin-orbit coupling. We establish that this particular device concept works especially well in p-doped semiconductor nano-structures where charge carriers are holes.