Inelastic light scattering by a two-dimensional electron system with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

Inelastic light scattering by a two-dimensional system of electrons in a conduction band with Rashba spinorbit coupling is studied theoretically for the resonance case where the frequencies of the incident and scattered light are close to the effective distance between the conduction band and spin-split band in a III–V semiconductor. It is shown that, in contrast to the case of no spin-orbit coupling, the spectrum of the scattered light exhibits a plasmon peak even for strictly perpendicular polarizations of the incident and scattered light. There exists a configuration where the scattering spectrum exhibits features originating from single-particle transitions only. Furthermore, it is shown that, for the general case of elliptic polarizations of the incident and scattered light, the amplitude of the plasmon peak depends on the sign of the effective Rashba spinorbit coupling constant and the signs of the phases of the polarization vectors. This fact can be used to determine the sign of the Rashba constant.