Spin-dependent tunneling through a symmetric semiconductor barrier: The Dresselhaus effect

Spin-dependent tunneling through a symmetric semiconductor barrier is studied including the k(3) Dresselhaus effect. The spin-dependent transmission of an electron can be obtained analytically. By comparing with previous work [Phys. Rev. B 67, 201304(R) (2003) and Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 056601 (2004)], it is shown that the spin polarization and interface current are changed significantly by including the off-diagonal elements in the current operator, and can be enhanced considerably by the Dresselhaus effect in the contact regions.