Long-range alternating spin current order in a quantum wire with modulated spin-orbit interactions

Abstract

A key concept in the emerging field of spintronics is the electric field control of spin precession via the effective magnetic field generated by the Rashba spin orbit interaction (RSOI). Here we model a quantum wire as a system of electrons on a discrete one-dimensional chain with nearest neighbor hopping. By extensive density matrix renormalization group computations we demonstrate the presence of alternating spin current order in the gapped phases of this quantum wire with spatially modulated RSOI and repulsive electron-electron interactions. Our results are analytically supported by bosonization and by a mapping to a locally rotated spin basis.