Conductance for a Quantum Wire with Weak Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling

We theoretically study the low temperature electron transport properties of a weak Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) semiconductor quantum wire connected nonadiabatically to two electrode leads without SOC. The wire and the leads are defined by a parabolic confining potential, and the influence of both the wire-lead connection and the Rashba SOC on the electron transport is treated analytically by means of scattering matrix within effective free-electron approximation. From analytical analysis and numerical examples, we find that the system shows some fractional quantum conductance behaviour, and for some particular wire width a pure spin polarized current exists. Our result may imply a simple method for the design of a spin filter without involving any magnetic materials or magnetic fields.