Partial spin polarization of a conductance in a bi-layer In0.52Al0.48As/In0.53Ga0.47AsIn0.52Al0.48As/In0.53Ga0.47As heterostructure based nanowire for the rectangular and the smooth lateral confinement potentials

• Spin polarization of conductance for InAlAs/InGaAs bi-layer wire is considered.
• Edge channels are formed in each layer for cleaved-edge lateral confinement.
• Substantial modifications in magnetosubbands if edge-channels are formed.
• Conductance's spin polarization limited to 40% due to edge channels
• Slight modifications of magnetosubbands' shapes for smooth lateral confinement.

We simulate the electron transport in a vertical bi-layer nanowire in order to study an influence of the lateral confinement's shape on a spin polarization of wire's conductance. The active part of considered quantum wire constitutes a double inverted heterojunction In0.52Al0.48As/In0.53Ga0.47AsIn0.52Al0.48As/In0.53Ga0.47As which nanostructure can be fabricated in molecular beam epitaxy process while the lateral confinement potential can be finally formed by means of cleaved overgrowth or surface oxidization methods giving the desired rectangular and smooth lateral confinement. In calculations we take into account interaction between charge carriers using DFT within local spin density approximation. We show that if the magnetic field is perpendicular to the wire axis, the pseudogaps are opened in energy dispersion relation E(k)E(k) what in conjunction with spin Zeeman shift of spin-up and spin-down subbands may enhance the spin polarization of conductance with reference to a single layer wire. For nanowire with rectangular lateral confinement potential we found that the electron density has two maximums localized at wire edges in each layers. This modificates strongly all magnetosubbands giving up to four energy minimums in lowest subband and considerably diminishes widths of pseudogaps what translates into low maximal spin polarization of conductance, not exceeding 40%. This drawback is absent in wire with smooth lateral confinement. However, in order to gain a large spin polarization simultaneous tuning of magnetic field as well as the Fermi energies in both layers of nanowire are required.