Electrical tuning of spin-orbit interaction in InAs nanowires
Indium arsenide (InAs) nanowires are a promising platform to fabricate various quantum electronic devices, for instance they have strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI). The controlled tuning of the SOI is needed in spin based quantum devices, for example spintronic applications, spin qubits. In this study we investigated the possibility of tuning the SOI by electrostatic field. The sources of the electric field were backgate and two sidegates parallel to the wire axis. The strength of the SOI was analyzed by weak-antilocalization. We demonstrated that the SOI can be strongly tuned, by a factor of 3 with the electric field across the nanowire, while the average electron density in the nanowire was kept constant. Furthermore a simple electrostatic model was introduced to calculate the expected change of SOI, and good agreement was found with the experimental results without fitting parameters.