Spin-helix Larmor mode

Sci Rep. 2018 Feb 22;8(1):3470. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-21818-8.

Abstract

A two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) with equal-strength Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling sustains persistent helical spin-wave states, which have remarkably long lifetimes. In the presence of an in-plane magnetic field, there exist single-particle excitations that have the character of propagating helical spin waves. For magnon-like collective excitations, the spin-helix texture reemerges as a robust feature, giving rise to a decoupling of spin-orbit and electronic many-body effects. We prove that the resulting spin-flip wave dispersion is the same as in a magnetized 2DEG without spin-orbit coupling, apart from a shift by the spin-helix wave vector. The precessional mode about the persistent spin-helix state is shown to have an energy given by the bare Zeeman splitting, in analogy with Larmor's theorem. We also discuss ways to observe the spin-helix Larmor mode experimentally.