Electron 'holes' in semiconductors are very attractive for future spintronics devices due to their unique spin properties, but until now researchers did not have a good understanding of these spin properties. Researchers from Australia's UNSW have classified the spin-orbit effects of holes confined to one dimension for the first time.
The researchers started out by trying to explain a 2006 experimental result, that showed that in on-dimensional quantum wires, spin-splitting was extremely sensitive to the direction of the magnetic field, unlike electrons which are insensitive to the field direction. In the recent study, the researchers identified a new spin-orbit interaction factor caused by the holesâ confinement to one dimension, and found that this new factor explained the 2006 experimental result.