Rashba Hamiltonian for spin-3/2 holes in semiconductor-heterostructure: In certain semiconductor

heterostructures, a two-dimensional gas contains holes rather electrons. Strong spin orbit interaction locks the
angular momenta and spins of holes into the total momentum J = 3/2 with projections
3 1
2 2
,
z
J = . The lowest
energy state happens to be that with
3
2 z
J = . These hole-states h
+
can be thought of as having effective spin
3/2 rather than ,
(1.1)

Symmetry of States: The wavefunction of spin 3/2 state is symmetric only under three-fold rotations.

Suppose that a layer of holes is sandwiched between two different materials such that the top-down symmetry is
broken. Top-down symmetry being broken means the samples holes are subject to a linear
1
electric field,

0 0
/ ; 0;
E h
E z V E z H q q q e
+
= = = = = > E (1.2)

The system (Hamiltonian) is still invariant under a) rotations about the normal by an arbitrary angle, b)
reflections in a plane that contains the normal, and c) time-reversal.

(a) Construct the Rashba Hamiltonian for this system.

The operators: The state of the system is defined by the following operators: spin,

1
2
1
2
( ); ; 0 1 0 0
; ;
( ); ( ); 0 0 1 0
x y x
x y
o o o o o o
o o
o o o o o o
+ +
+
+
= + = +
( (
= =
( (
= =

i
i i
(1.3)

Also, you have xy-plane momentum operators, indicating the spherical-tensor-basis,

1 1
2 2
1 1
2 2
( ) ( );
;
( ) ( );
x y x
x y
x y y
p p p p p p
p p
p p p p p p

+ +
+
+
= + =
= +
= = +
i
i
p
i
(1.4)

How the operators transform: we have three transforms: (a) rotation, (b) xy-reflection, and (c) time-reversal.

*
( ) ( ) ; ( ) ( , , ) ( , , );
( ) ( , ) | ( ) ( , ) ( ) | ( , );
z z
h h h
a R R b x y z x y z
c t h t t h t t
u

+ +
+ + +
' ' = = = + + + = +
' = = =
x x x x x x
x x x x x
(1.5)

Thus, the operators (1.3) and (1.4) transform under each as,

( ) ( )
( ) Re( , )

1 1
2 2
; ( ) ( ) ; ( ) ( ) ;
R x y T
x y x y
p p p e p p p p p p p p p p
u
u

' ' ' = = = = =
i
i i (1.6)

( )
( ) Re( , )

3 1
2
; ; ( ) ( ) ;
R x y T
x y
e
u
u
o o o o o o o o o o o

' ' ' = = + = =
i
i (1.7)

Distributivity across multiplication for self-inverse operators: Finally, we show a trick that allows us to
transform products of operators,

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
( ... ) ... ... ; O O ABC XYZ A B C X Y Z A B C X Y Z

' ' ' ' ' ' ' = = = = T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T (1.8)

Rotational symmetry: On rotational-symmetry grounds, then, we could write down the Hamiltonian as,

3 3
all rotationally-invariant
combinations of p ,
| ;
i i i
i
H c H p p
o
o o | o

= + +
= = +

(1.9)

1
The problem statement warns us this is a semiconductor heterojunction; VI-characteristics may be non-Ohmic (e.g., a p/n junction).

That is: (1.9) is designed to do the following under rotation,

( )
( )
1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 0
( ) ( ) 1 ;
R
H H R HR p e e p e e p p e H H
u
u u u u
u u o o | o o o | o

+ + + +
' = = + = + = =
i i i i
(1.10)

Reflection symmetry: effecting an xy-plane reflection, we have p p

and o o

, indicating that our
coefficients must be pseudoscalar coefficients,

Re( , ) Re( , )
1 3 3
( , ) ( , ) Re ( ) Re( ) ( )( ) ( )( ) ;
x y x y
H H H p p H o | o | o o | o

+ +
' = = + = x x (1.11)

Time reversal: Finally, we see that time-reversal trivially causes
4
( 1) H H H H ' = = , without further need
to specialize the coefficients.

Without loss of generality, we can take o | = , and write the matrix-form of the Hamiltonian (1.9),

( ) ( )
3 3 3 3
3/ 2
3 3
3 3/ 2 3/ 2 3
( ) ( )
2
0 ( ) 0
; ;
( ) 0 2 2 0
SO x y x y
x y
x y
H p p p p p p
p p z
p p z
o
o o o o o
o o o
o
o
+ + +
= + = + +
( ' (
' = = = e
( (
+ '
(

i i
i
i
(1.12)

Meanwhile, the full Hamiltonian is
2
1
0 2
( )
SO m
H H eE z = + p 1 , in which 1 is the 2x2 identity, so we have,

2 3 3 1
0 2 0
3 2 3 1
0 2 0
( )
( )
x y m
x y m
eE z p p H z
H
p p eE z z H
o o
o o
' ( ' (
= =
( (
' + '
(

p i
i p
(1.13)

(b) Find the eigenstates and eigenenergies.

We find that
2
2 3
0
det( ) 0 ( ) H H z c c o' = = 1 , which is re-expressed, using
2
2 2 2
x y
p p z = + = p , as,

( )
3
2 2 2 3/2 2 2 2
1 1
0 0 0 2 2
( )
x y x y m m
H z eE z p p p p eE z c o o o c

' ' ' = = + = + = p p (1.14)

Since this is a course on qualitative methods, it shall be the experimenters job to find o' . One can also see the
eigenspinors are most-easily normalizable if one writes the momentum in spherical-polar coordinates,

2 2 2
(cos sin 2 cos sin )
1 1
1
x y
x y
p p
p p
e
H
u
o u u u u o o
c c c c

+

(
' ' ' ( (
= = = = (
( (
(

i
i
i
i
(1.15)