Gate-tunable Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction mediated by low-dimensional electrons with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

The gate-controllable Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) magnetic interaction between the magnetic impurities embedded in one- and two-dimensional electron gas in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling was analyzed theoretically. By using the eigenfunctions of the single-particle Rashba Hamiltonian as the basis of second quantization, we derived the RKKY interaction by fully taking into account the spin-orbit interaction. The dependence of the RKKY magnetic interaction on the Rashba spin-orbit coupling strength was obtained numerically. Our results clearly indicate that the RKKY interaction can be significantly modified by an applied voltage via the Rashba spin-orbit coupling. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.