Spin and Charge Memory Retention in Localized Spin-Orbit Coupled Systems

Abstract

We investigate the non-interacting 2D Anderson model with Rashba type spin-orbit coupling over the localized-delocalized phase transition. We calculate a coarse-grained picture of the disorder strength - SOC coupling strength phase diagram. We also investigate the persistence of information about the initial state through imbalance measurements. We compare the imbalance retention for different densities such as charge density, Si for different initial conditions. We show that the charge and spin imbalances behave in qualitatively different ways as we move through the parameter space. The spin imbalance is less robust than the charge imbalance for small spin-orbit coupling but more robust at large coupling values. The dependence of the charge imbalance on the presence/absence of a spin pattern in the initial condition is also investigated.