  We address the problem of quantum particles moving on a manifold
characterised by the presence of torsion along a preferential axis. In fact,
such a torsion may be taylored by the presence of a single screw dislocation,
whose Burgers vector measures the torsion amplitude. The problem, first treated
in the relativistic limit describing fermions that couple minimally to torsion,
is then analysed in the Pauli limit We show that torsion induces a geometric
potential and also that it couples generically to the phase of the wave
function, giving rise to the possibility of using torsion to manipulate spin
currents in the case of spinor wave functions. These results emerge as an
alternative strategy for using screw dislocations in the design of
spintronic-based devices.
