The Aharonov-Bohm-Casher ring-dot as a flux-tunable resonant tunneling   diode
  A mesoscopic ring subject to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction and sequentially coupled to an interacting quantum dot, in the presence of Aharonov-Bohm flux, is proposed as a flux tunable tunneling diode. The analysis of the conductance by means of the nonequilibrium Green's function technique, shows an intrinsic bistability at varying the Aharonov-Bohm flux when 2U > \pi \Gamma, U being the charging energy on the dot and \Gamma the effective resonance width. The bistability properties are discussed in connection with spin-switch effects and logical storage device applications. 
R. Citro and F. Romeo