Shot noise of spin-dependent currents in ferromagnetic/semiconductor/ferromagnetic heterojunctions.

Using the scattering matrix method, we investigate the spin-dependent conductance and the shot noise of the multichannel ferromagnetic/semiconductor/ferromagnetic heterojunctions in the presence of the spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We find that spin-up and spin-down electrons have different contributions to the conductance and the shot noise. The rounded quantum plateaus of the conductance appear when the length of the semiconductor is made shorter. As the number of conducting channels in the system increases, the shot noise power oscillates and the Fano factor is increasingly suppressed. We also find that interband mixing due to the SOC brings significant effects on the spin-dependent conductance and the shot noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]