Spin accumulation on a one-dimensional mesoscopic Rashba ring

The nonequilibrium spin accumulation on a one-dimensional (1D) mesoscopic Rashba ring is investigated with unpolarized current injected through ideal leads. Due to the Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling and back-scattering at the interfaces between the leads and the ring, a beating pattern is formed in the fast oscillation of spin accumulation. If every beating period is complete, a plateau is formed, where the variation of spin accumulation with the external voltage is slow, but if new incomplete periods emerge in the envelope function, a transitional region appears. This plateau structure and the beating pattern are related to the tunnelling through spin-dependent resonant states. Because of the Aharonov-Casher (AC) effect, the average spin accumulation oscillates quasi-periodically with the Rashba SO coupling and has a series of zeros. In some situations, the direction of the average spin accumulation can be reversed by the external voltage in this 1D Rashba ring.