Spin dynamics for wave packets in Rashba systems

We explore the spin dynamics of wave packets inside Rashba systems using a spin propagator approach. A spin propagator gives conditional probability amplitude between two points in position and spin space at a time interval [1]. We derive and apply the Rashba spin propagator to localized spin wave packets. We observe several interesting features, such as\textit{spin separation}, \textit{persistent spin helix}, \textit{bamboo-shooting structure, ripple formation structure}, and others [2]. We discuss these features which depend critically on the choice of both the width of the wavepacket and the Rashba coupling strength quantitatively with realistic experimental data. [1].B. C. Hsu and J.-F. S. Van Huele, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor., \textbf{42}, 475304 (2009). [2]B. C. Hsu and J.-F. S. Van Huele, Phys. Rev. B, \textbf{80} , 19XXXX (2009).