Magnetotransport in a two-dimensional electron gas in the presence of spin-orbit interaction

We evaluate the transport coefficients of a two-dimensional electron gas in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field and of the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) described only by the Rashba term of strength alpha. The SOI mixes the spin-up and spin-down states of neighboring Landau levels into two new, unequally spaced energy branches. The broadened density of states, as a function of the energy, and the longitudinal resistivity, as a function of the magnetic field, show beating patterns in agreement with observations. The positions of any two successive nodes in the beating pattern approximately determine the strength of the Rashba term. A strong SOI results in a splitting of the magnetoresistance peaks and a doubling of the number of the Hall plateaus. Each peak in the derivative of the Hall resistivity with respect to the magnetic field for alpha=0 splits, for alphanot equal0, into two peaks, whose separation DeltaB increases initially with alpha and saturates for large alpha.