Electrical manipulation of spins in a nanowire with Rashba interaction

We investigate the influence of external electric fields on the spins of a ballistic nanowire in terms of variations of the Rashba parameter and modification of the confinement potential. For a weak Rashba effect, the spins along the confinement direction in a given subband nearly assume full quantization. In the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field, the state of quantization can be manipulated using a transverse electric. This process requires modifications in the spin textures. If an in-plane magnetic field is applied, spins suffer rigid displacement to one edge of the wire and their expectation value becomes independent of the transverse electric field.