  We investigate the linear conductance of a stripe of spin-orbit interaction
in a 2D electron gas; that is, a 2D region of length $\ell$ along the transport
direction and infinite in the transverse one in which a spin-orbit interaction
of Rashba type is present. Polarization in the contacts is described by means
of Zeeman fields. Our model predicts two types of conductance oscillations:
Ramsauer oscillations in the minority spin transmission, when both spins can
propagate, and Fano oscillations when only one spin propagates. The latter are
due to the spin-orbit coupling with quasibound states of the non propagating
spin. In the case of polarized contacts in antiparallel configuration Fano-like
oscillations of the conductance are still made possible by the spin orbit
coupling, even though no spin component is bound by the contacts. To describe
these behaviors we propose a simplified model based on an ansatz wave function.
In general, we find that the contribution for vanishing transverse momentum
dominates and defines the conductance oscillations. Regarding the oscillations
with Rashba coupling intensity, our model confirms the spin transistor
behavior, but only for high degrees of polarization. Including a position
dependent effective mass yields additional oscillations due to the mass jumps
at the interfaces.
