Spin-polarized current generation from quantum dots without magnetic fields

An unpolarized charge current passing through a chaotic quantum dot with spin-orbit coupling can produce a spin-polarized exit current without magnetic fields or ferromagnets. We use random matrix theory to estimate the typical spin polarization as a function of the number of channels in each lead in the limit of large spin-orbit coupling. We find rms spin polarizations up to 45% with one input channel and two output channels. Finite temperature and dephasing both suppress the effect, and we include dephasing effects using a variation of the third lead model. If there is only one channel in the output lead, no spin polarization can be produced, but we show that dephasing lifts this restriction.