  Spin-selective tunneling of holes in SiGe nanocrystals contacted by
normal-metal leads is reported. The spin selectivity arises from an interplay
of the orbital effect of the magnetic field with the strong spin-orbit
interaction present in the valence band of the semiconductor. We demonstrate
both experimentally and theoretically that spin-selective tunneling in
semiconductor nanostructures can be achieved without the use of ferromagnetic
contacts. The reported effect, which relies on mixing the light and heavy
holes, should be observable in a broad class of quantum-dot systems formed in
semiconductors with a degenerate valence band.
