Regular Article

Spin-sensitive atom scattering via spin-orbit interaction

¹ Department of Physics, School of Physics and Electronic Science, East China Normal University Shanghai 200241 P.R. China
² School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Guangzhou University Guangzhou 510006 P.R. China
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Tsung-Dao Lee Institute Shanghai 200240 P.R. China
⁴ Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University Taiyuan Shanxi 030006 P.R. China

^a e-mail: lzhou@phy.ecnu.edu.cn
^b e-mail: yli@phy.ecnu.edu.cn

Received: 9 July 2020
Received in final form: 26 September 2020
Accepted: 28 September 2020
Published online: 1 November 2020

Abstract

We study the spin-sensitive scattering of the spin-orbit (SO) coupled cold atom subject to a moving spin-independent rectangular potential barrier. Due to that SO coupling breaks Galilean invariance, the spin orientation of the atom can be switched unidirectionally and thus can serve as a one-way spin switch. Different atomic scattering processes are analyzed at different barrier velocities. We explore the spin polarization rate and the transmission coefficient in a wide range of barrier velocities and find good agreement with the corresponding experiment. The spin switch can reach an efficiency close to 1 at appropriate parameters. This study presents a comprehensive understanding of the physical mechanism underlying the system’s function as a spintronic device.