Experimental investigation of spin-orbit coupling in <i>n</i>-type PbTe quantum wells

Abstract

The spin-orbit coupling is studied experimentally in two PbTe quantum wells by means of weak antilocalization effect. Using the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka model through a computational global optimization procedure, we extracted the spin-orbit and inelastic scattering times and estimated the strength of the zero field spin-splitting energy Δso. The values of Δso are linearly dependent on the Fermi wave vector (kF) confirming theoretical predictions of the existence of large spin-orbit coupling in IV-VI quantum wells originated from pure Rashba effect.