Abstract
We investigate theoretically the efficiency of the Rashba effect, i.e. the spin-orbit splitting resulting from an electric field. In contrast to previous studies, where the carriers have usually been taken to be electrons, we focus on holes and are able to demonstrate remarkable improvements of the effect by several orders of magnitude. We also show that the frequently-neglected lattice-mismatch between GaAs and AlGaAs can be used to further enhance the efficiency of the wave vector splitting mechanism. The Rashba effect is the fundamental mechanism behind the Datta-Das spin transistor and we find that for a small electric field of 2 kV/cm the spin precession length becomes only 36 nm.