Zitterbewegung of a heavy hole in presence of spin-orbit interactions

We study the zitterbewegung of a heavy hole in presence of both cubic Rashba and cubic Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions. On contrary to the electronic case, zitterbewegung does not vanish for equal strength of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction. This non-vanishing of zitterbewegung is associated with the Berry phase. Due to the presence of the spin-orbit coupling the spin associated with the heavy hole precesses about an effective magnetic field. This spin precession produces a transverse spin-orbit force which also generates an electric voltage associated with zitterbewegung. We have estimated the magnitude of this voltage for a possible experimental detection of zitterbewegung. Copyright EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015