Abstract
We study effects of the oft-neglected cubic Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling (i.e., ) in quantum dots. Using a semiclassical billiard model, we estimate the magnitude of the spin-orbit induced avoided crossings in a closed quantum dot in a Zeeman field. Using previous analyses based on random matrix theory, we calculate corresponding effects on the conductance through an open quantum dot. Combining our results with an experiment on an quantum dot [D. M. Zumbühl et al., Phys. Rev. B 72, 081305 (2005)] suggests that (1) the GaAs Dresselhaus coupling constant is approximately , significantly less than the commonly cited value of , and (2) the majority of the spin-flip effects can come from the cubic Dresselhaus term.
- Received 27 February 2007
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.226802
©2007 American Physical Society