Role of orbital dynamics in spin relaxation and weak antilocalization in quantum dots

Phys Rev Lett. 2005 Jan 21;94(2):026809. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.026809. Epub 2005 Jan 21.

Abstract

We develop a semiclassical theory for spin-dependent quantum transport to describe weak (anti)localization in quantum dots with spin-orbit coupling. This allows us to distinguish different types of spin relaxation in systems with chaotic, regular, and diffusive orbital classical dynamics. We find, in particular, that for typical Rashba spin-orbit coupling strengths, integrable ballistic systems can exhibit weak localization, while corresponding chaotic systems show weak antilocalization. We further calculate the magnetoconductance and analyze how the weak antilocalization is suppressed with decreasing quantum dot size and increasing additional in-plane magnetic field.