Cyclotron spin-flip mode in the extreme quantum limit

In a two-dimensional electron system, the combined excitation (the cyclotron spin-flip mode) associated with changes in both orbital and spin quantum numbers is investigated. The energy of the cyclotron spin-flip mode is studied as a function of the electron filling factor. Comparative dependences of the decay times of the cyclotron spin-flip mode and the magnetoplasmon are measured. It is shown that, as the filling factor increases from v = 0 or decreases from v = 1, the damping of the cyclotron spin-flip mode increases significantly, while the magnetoplasma mode remains undamped.     

Basic Requirements of Spin-Flip Raman Scattering on Excitonic Resonances and Its Modulation through Additional High-Energy Illumination in Semiconductor Heterostructures

We describe the major requirements to experimentally perform and observe resonant spin-flip Raman scattering on excitonic resonances in low-dimensional semiconductors. We characterize in detail the properties of this resonant light scattering technique and evaluate the criteria, which must be fulfilled by the experimental setup and the semiconductor sample studied to be able to observe a spin-flip scattering process. We also demonstrate the influence of additional unpolarized laser illumination with energies, which exceed considerably the band gap energy of the semiconductor nanostructure under study, on the resonantly excited electron spin-flip scattering in InAs-based quantum dot ensembles as well as on the paramagnetic Mn-ion spin-flip in (Zn,Mn)Se/(Zn,Be)Se quantum wells.     

Optical investigation of spin-wave excitations in fractional quantum hall states and of interaction between composite fermions

We demonstrate that the temperature dependence of the electron spin polarization for the fractional states nu = 1/3 and nu = 2/3 displays activated behavior. This study enables the first measurement of the fractional quantum Hall spin-flip gaps. They are found to be systematically larger in comparison with the gaps simultaneously measured in transport. For nu = 1/3 and nu = 1/2, these spin-flip gaps allow the determination of the composite fermion interaction energy. This energy is investigated as a function of the finite width of the 2D channel.     

Tunneling conductance of a two-dimensional electron gas with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling

We theoretically studied the spin-dependent charge transport in a two-dimensional electron gas with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling (DSOC) and metal junctions. It is shown that the DSOC energy can be directly measured from the tunneling conductance spectrum. We found that spin polarization of the conductance in the propagation direction can be obtained by injecting from the DSOC system. We also considered the effect of the interfacial scattering barrier (both spin-flip and non-spin-flip scattering) on the overall conductance and the spin polarization of the conductance. It is found that the increase of spin-flip scattering can enhance the conductance under certain conditions. Moreover, both types of scattering can increase the spin polarization below the branches crossing of the energy band.     

Observation of intersubband excitations in a multilayer two dimensional electron gas

We report the observation, by resonant inelastic light scattering, of intersubband excitations of the multilayer two dimensional electron gas, in modulation doped GaAsAlGaAs heterojunction superlattices. These are the first measurements of these transitions by any technique, and furnish intersubband energies in good agreement with calculated values. The spectral bands are broad, and nearly Lorentzian in shape: the implied relaxation rates scale linearly with band energy and are significantly faster than transport relaxation rates. Finally, the polarized spectra reveal differences between spin-flip and non spin-flip excitations which are unique to multilayer two dimensional electron gases.     

Electric field control of spin splitting in III–V semiconductor quantum dots without magnetic field

We provide an alternative means of electric field control for spin manipulation in the absence of magnetic fields by transporting quantum dots adiabatically in the plane of two-dimensional electron gas. We show that the spin splitting energy of moving quantum dots is possible due to the presence of quasi-Hamiltonian that might be implemented to make the next generation spintronic devices of post CMOS technology. Such spin splitting energy is highly dependent on the material properties of semiconductor. It turns out that this energy is in the range of meV and can be further enhanced with increasing pulse frequency. In particular, we show that quantum oscillations in phonon mediated spin-flip behaviors can be observed. We also confirm that no oscillations in spin-flip behaviors can be observed for the pure Rashba or pure Dresselhaus cases.     

Temperature dependence of nuclear spin-lattice relaxation in the heavy-fermion superconducting state

Some features of the experimental data on nuclear spin relaxation time T₁ in the heavy-fermion superconducting state can be explained by taking into account the effect of the electron Zeeman energy. It is found that at intermediate temperatures the usual quasiparticle spin-flip scattering dominates, while at very low temperatures a new process, pair creation (annihilation), dominates and gives T^-1₁ ∝ T.     

Infrared catastrophe in a two-quasiparticle collision integral

Relaxation of a nonequilibrium state in a disordered metal with a spin-dependent electron energy distribution is considered. The collision integral due to the electron-electron interaction is computed within the approximation of a two-quasiparticle scattering. It is shown that the spin-flip scattering processes with a small energy transfer may lead to the divergence of the collision integral for a quasi one-dimensional wire. This divergence is present only for a spin-dependent electron energy distribution that corresponds to the total electron spin magnetization M = 0 and only for nonzero interaction in the triplet channel. In this case, a nonperturbative treatment of the electron-electron interaction is needed to provide an effective infrared cutoff.     

Resonant spin-optic-phonon interaction in small-gap semiconductors

Coupling of electron spin to optic phonons due to spin—orbit interaction is studied theoretically for small-gap semiconductors in the presence of a magnetic field. We predict an anomalous behaviour of magnetic levels when spin-flip energies become equal to the phonon energy. The effects should be observable in HgTe-type materials.     

Electron-electron spin-flip scattering and spin relaxation in III–V and II–VI semiconductors

Spin relaxation time of conduction electrons resulting from electron-electron spin-flip collisions has been investigated in III–V and II–VI semiconductors with InSb-like energy band structure. Analytical expression has been obtained for non-degenerate electron gas. The proposed mechanism can be dominent in the experimental conditions of electron spin resonance in InSb at higher temperatures.     

Infrared catastrophe in a two-quasiparticle collision integral

Relaxation of a nonequilibrium state in a disordered metal with a spin-dependent electron energy distribution is considered. The collision integral due to the electron-electron interaction is computed within the approximation of a two-quasiparticle scattering. It is shown that the spin-flip scattering processes with a small energy transfer may lead to the divergence of the collision integral for a quasi one-dimensional wire. This divergence is present only for a spin-dependent electron energy distribution that corresponds to the total electron spin magnetization M = 0 and only for nonzero interaction in the triplet channel. In this case, a nonperturbative treatment of the electron-electron interaction is needed to provide an effective infrared cutoff. The text was submitted by the authors in English. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Probing spin-flip scattering in ballistic nanosystems

Because spin-flip length is longer than the electron mean-free path in a metal, past studies of spin-flip scattering are limited to the diffusive regime. We propose to use a magnetic double barrier tunnel junction to study spin-flip scattering in the nanometer sized spacer layer near the ballistic limit. We extract the voltage and temperature dependence of the spin-flip conductance Gs in the spacer layer from magnetoresistance measurements. In addition to spin scattering information including the mean-free path (70 nm) and the spin-flip length (1.0-2.6 microm) at 4.2 K, this technique also yields information on the density of states and quantum well resonance in the spacer layer.     

Spin-flip transport through an interacting quantum dot

The spin-flip associated transport based on the Anderson model is studied. It is found that the electrons are scattered due to spin-flip effect via the normal, mixed and Kondo channels. The spin-flip scattering via Kondo channel enhances the Kondo resonance peak and causes a slight blue shift. The conductance is suppressed by the spin-flip scattering. This is attributed to the reason that electrons with energy near Fermi level are scattered by Kondo channel.     

The Andreev tunneling behaviors in the FM/QD/SC system with intradot spin-flip scattering

The resonant behaviors of spin-dependent linear AR conductance, the spin-dependent AR current, the electron occupation number and spin accumulation in the QD are theoretically investigated in the FM/QD/SC system with intradot spin-flip scattering. The novel resonant behaviors of spin-dependent AR conductance versus Fermi energy are revealed, which are rather different from the AR conductance versus the dot's energy level case [Cao et al., Phys. Rev. B 70 (2004) 235341]. It is proved that the split of the resonant peak can be induced by the competition between the coupling strengths to the FM and SC leads, the intradot spin-flip scattering, and the gate voltage. The number, the widths, and the distance of the peaks could be controlled by tuning the relevant parameters. The resonance of AR current can take place only when the energy level of QD lines up with the right lead chemical potential and blows the left lead chemical potential. The magnitude of the resonant AR current depends on the number of resonant levels involved in the Andreev tunneling process. It is also proved that the spin-flip scattering can suppress the spin accumulation effectively, and induce the spin polarization of AR conductance and AR current simultaneously. The results make us understand better the fundamental in this system, and are useful for the design of spintronic devices.     

Inelastic quasiparticle lifetimes of the Shockley surface state band on Ni(111)

We present a study of the low-energy quasiparticle lifetimes of the Shockley surface state on the Ni(111) surface with scanning tunnelling spectroscopy. By measuring the coherence length of the decaying standing wave pattern at straight step edges electron and hole lifetimes have been determined. The values of the lifetime measured on this ferromagnetic surface show to be considerable smaller than the values obtained from noble metal surfaces. This is explained by differences in the electron density of states at the Fermi energy but has to include substantial spin-flip scattering. Furthermore hole lifetimes appear to be larger than electron lifetimes with the same excitation energy. Although only results for the majority spin component are presented, a spin-dependent selfenergy is expected.     

Spin-flip transport in one-dimensional comb-like waveguide

The spin-flip transport of electron in one-dimensional comb-like waveguide structures is investigated theoretically including the Rashba and Dresselhaus effects. The spin-polarized transmission of electron oscillates with changing the length of stubs and/or electronic momentum, and depends sensitively on electron spin orientation injected from the ferromagnetic source. The spin-flip transmission induced by the Rashba and Dresselhaus effects can only be up to 25% in the case of one stub, and can be enhanced significantly by adding more stubs. The spin-flip transmission induced by the Dresselhaus effect is similar to what induced by the Rashba effect for the one stub case, but is quite different for multi-stub case. The interplay between the Rashba and Dresselhaus effects shortens the period of transmission oscillation and enhances the splitting of the transmission peaks.     

Low-magnetic-field divergence of the electronic g factor obtained from the cyclotron spin-flip mode of the nu=1 quantum Hall ferromagnet

We report an inelastic light scattering study of the cyclotron spin-flip mode in the two-dimensional electron system at filling nu=1. The energy of this mode can serve as a probe of the many-body exchange interaction on short length scales. Its magnetic field dependence is compared with predictions based on Hartree-Fock theory. They agree well when including the nonzero width of the electron system. From the measured energies, the exchange enhanced g factor is extracted. It diverges at small fields and differs largely from g factors obtained via transport activation studies.     

Observation of nonconventional spin waves in composite-fermion ferromagnets

We find unexpected low energy excitations of fully spin-polarized composite-fermion ferromagnets in the fractional quantum Hall liquid, resulting from a complex interplay between a topological order manifesting through new energy levels and a magnetic order due to spin polarization. The lowest energy modes, which involve spin reversal, are remarkable in displaying unconventional negative dispersion at small momenta followed by a deep roton minimum at larger momenta. This behavior results from a nontrivial mixing of spin-wave and spin-flip modes creating a spin-flip excitonic state of composite-fermion particle-hole pairs. The striking properties of spin-flip excitons imply highly tunable mode couplings that enable fine control of topological states of itinerant two-dimensional ferromagnets.     

Collective state of electrons and impurities with a spin

The problem of states of an electron system interacting with impurities that have a spin of 1/2 is considered. It is shown that in the calculation of the energy of the system, the electron spin-flip processes and the formation of electron–hole–impurity flip spin (hole against the background of electrons with another spin projection) play the major role. Such complexes are accumulated in the system (a sort of Bose condensate of complexes is formed); this reduces the energy of the system, which is a linear function of the initial interaction of an electron with the impurity spin (in contrast, for example, to the result obtained in perturbation theory). The hole-type excitation and the spin excitation have a gap in the spectrum. Small parameters of the problem are the interaction of electrons with impurity spins and the number of impurities. The electron–electron interaction is not taken into account. Impurities are assumed to be distributed at random, and calculations are performed using the known averaging over the positions of impurities.