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arXiv:2603.18187

Towards spintronics via tunneling through asymmetric barriers

Elvira Bilokon, Valeriia Bilokon, Stanislava Litvinova, Denys I. Bondar, Andrii Sotnikov

quant-phSubmitted Mar 18, 2026• Announced Mar 20, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Spin transport typically relies on direct manipulation of the spin degree of freedom via magnetic fields, spin-orbit coupling, or engineered spin-dependent potentials. We show theoretically that directional spin currents can arise in a relatively simple setting - a one-dimensional interacting fermionic ring with static, spin-independent asymmetric barriers. By introducing asymmetric potential barrier geometry, spin-resolved circulating currents emerge on a closed chain even for symmetric initial configurations. The effect can be enhanced or reversed by appropriate initial state preparation and tuning the barrier asymmetry to resonant conditions.

Comments
5 pages, 4 figures

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Spin transport typically relies on direct manipulation of the spin degree of freedom via magnetic fields, spin-orbit coupling, or engineered spin-dependent potentials. We show theoretically that directional spin currents can arise in a relatively simple setting - a one-dimensional interacting fermionic ring with static, spin-independent asymmetric barriers. By introducing asymmetric potential barrier geometry, spin-resolved circulating currents emerge on a closed chain even for symmetric initial configurations. The effect can be enhanced or reversed by appropriate initial state preparation and tuning the barrier asymmetry to resonant conditions.
Understanding quantum tunneling in many-body systems is crucial for advancing quantum technologies and nanoscale device design. Despite extensive studies of quantum tunneling, the role of interactions in determining directional transport through asymmetric barriers in discrete quantum systems remains unclear. Here we show that noninteracting fermions exhibit symmetric tunneling probabilities regardless of barrier orientation, while inter-particle interactions break this symmetry and create pronounced asymmetric tunneling behavior. We explore the dependence of tunneling behavior on the initial spin configurations of two spin-1/2 fermions: spin-triplet states preserve tunneling symmetry, while spin-singlet states show strong asymmetry. We identify regimes where interactions mediate tunneling through under-barrier resonant trapping and enhance tunneling via many-body resonant tunneling - a phenomenon arising solely from inter-particle interactions and being fundamentally different from traditional single-particle resonant tunneling. Our results may be applied to the design of nanoscale devices with tailored transport properties, such as diodes and memristors.
We propose a scheme to implement the one-dimensional coined quantum walk with electrons transported through a two-dimensional network of spintronic semiconductor quantum rings. The coin degree of freedom is represented by the spin of the electron while the discrete position of the walker corresponds to the label of the rings in one of the spatial directions in the network. We assume that Rashba-type spin-orbit interaction is present in the rings, the strength of which can be tuned by an external electric field. The geometry of the device, together with the appropriate spin-orbit interaction strengths, ensure the realization of the coin toss (i.e., spin flip) and the step operator.
This work is devoted to the investigation of nontrivial transport properties in many-body quantum systems. Precisely, we study transport in the steady state of spin-1/2 Heisenberg XXZ chains, driven out of equilibrium by two magnetic baths at their end points. We take graded versions of the model, i.e. asymmetric chains in which some structure gradually changes in space. We investigate how we can manipulate and control the energy and spin currents of such chains by tuning external and/or inner parameters. In particular, we describe the occurrence of energy current rectification and its reversal due to the application of external magnetic fields. We show that, after carefully chosen inner parameters for the system, by turning on an external magnetic field we can find spin and energy currents propagating in different directions. More interestingly, we may find cases in which rectifications of energy and spin currents occur in opposite directions, i.e. if the energy current is larger when flowing from left to right side, then the spin current is larger if it flows from right to left side. We still describe situations with inversion of the energy current direction as we increase the system asymmetry. We stress that our work aims the development of theoretical knowledge as well as the stimulation of future experimental applications.
We study spin transport in nonitinerant one-dimensional quantum spin chains. Motivated by possible applications in spintronics, we consider rectification effects in both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic systems. We find that the crucial ingredients in designing a system that displays a nonzero rectification current are an anisotropy in the exchange interaction of the spin chain combined with an offset magnetic field. For both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic systems we can exploit the gap in the excitation spectrum that is created by a bulk anisotropy to obtain a measurable rectification effect at realistic magnetic fields. For antiferromagnetic systems we also find that we can achieve a similar effect by introducing a magnetic impurity, obtained by altering two neighboring bonds in the spin Hamiltonian.
We present a theoretical study of electron tunneling through a magnetic barrier in 8-Pmmn borophene, created by depositing two ferromagnetic strips on the borophene sheet. Using a low-energy effective Hamiltonian that captures the anisotropic Dirac spectrum, we solve the Dirac equation in three regions and impose wave-function continuity at the interfaces. From the resulting spinor solutions, we compute current densities and determine transmission and reflection probabilities as functions of incident energy, angle, and barrier parameters. The transmission exhibits strong anisotropy due to the tilted Dirac cones, with pronounced suppression for specific incident directions, suggesting directional filtering of carriers. We further calculate the conductance using the Landauer-Büttiker formalism, revealing that both magnetic strength and barrier width can tune the charge transport properties. The results demonstrate that engineered magnetic barriers in 8-Pmmn borophene enable precise control over electron flow, offering a platform for anisotropic transport control and tunable quantum devices. The interplay between the intrinsic anisotropy of borophene and external magnetic barriers provides rich opportunities to manipulate Dirac fermions in two-dimensional systems.
Motivated by potential applications in spintronics, we study frequency-dependent spin transport in nonitinerant one-dimensional spin chains. We propose a system that behaves as a capacitor for the spin degree of freedom. It consists of a spin chain with two impurities a distance ddd apart. We find that at low energy (frequency), the impurities flow to strong coupling, thereby effectively cutting the chain into three parts, with the middle island containing a discrete number of spin excitations. At finite frequency, spin transport through the system increases. We find a strong dependence of the finite-frequency characteristics both on the anisotropy of the spin chain and the applied magnetic field. We propose a method to measure the finite-frequency conductance in this system.