External electro-optic sampling utilizing a poled polymer asymmetric Fabry–Perot cavity as an electro-optical probe tip

External electro-optic sampling utilizing a poled polymer asymmetry Fabry–Perot cavity as electro-optic probe tip has been demonstrated. Electro-optical polymer spin coated on the high-reflectivity mirror (HRM) was corona poled. Thus, an asymmetric F–P cavity was formed based on the different reflectivity of the polymer and HRM and it converted the phase modulation that originates from electro-optic effect of the poled polymer to amplitude modulation, so only one laser beam is needed in this system. The principle of the sampling was analyzed by multiple reflection and index ellipsoid methods. A 1.2 GHz microwave signal propagating on coplanar waveguide transmission line was sampled, and the voltage sensitivity about was obtained.     

Spin-dependent internal photo-electron emission over metal–semiconductor junctions – a study with circularly polarised infrared radiation

The spin asymmetry of internal photo-electron emission over Schottky barriers has been investigated for Fe/GaAs (001) having close-to-ideal current–voltage characteristics. Using a low-power circularly polarised YAG laser operated at its fundamental frequency (λ=1064 nm) as well as a visible diode laser (λ=670 nm) we demonstrate that, by eliminating the photo-current due to inter-band transitions in GaAs with the infrared source, a significant enhancement to the magnetic asymmetry could be achieved. The bias dependence of the asymmetry was also measured. It was found that the values were considerably different for the photo-electrons traversing the barriers in opposite directions. Received: 15 November 2001 / Revised version: 23 March 2002 / Published online: 2 May 2002     

Single spin asymmetry for charm mesons

We study single spin asymmetries of D̄⁰ and D^- mesons in polarized proton–proton collisions. A two component model is used to describe charm meson production. The production of D mesons occurs by recombination of the constituents present in the initial state as well as by fragmentation of quarks in the final state. This model has proved to describe the production of charm. The recombination component involves a mechanism of spin alignment that ends up in a single spin asymmetry. Experimental measurements of single spin asymmetry for pions at RHIC are compared with the model. Predictions for the asymmetry in D mesons are presented.     

Magnetoresistance of Fe3O4/Au/Fe3O4 and Fe3O4/Au/Fe spin-valve structures

A detailed study of the in-plane magnetotransport properties of spin valves with one and two Fe₃O₄ electrodes is presented. Fe₃O₄/Au/Fe₃O₄ spin valves exhibit a clear anisotropic magnetoresistance in small magnetic fields but no giant magnetoresistance (GMR). The absence of GMR in these structures is due to simultaneous magnetization reversal in the two Fe₃O₄ layers. By contrast, a negative GMR effect is measured on Fe₃O₄/Au/Fe spin valves. The negative GMR is attributed to an electron spin scattering asymmetry at the Fe₃O₄/Au interface or an induced spin scattering asymmetry in the Au interfacial layers.     

Nonequilibrium spin dynamics in a trapped fermi gas with effective spin-orbit interactions

We consider a trapped atomic system in the presence of spatially varying laser fields. The laser-atom interaction generates a pseudospin degree of freedom (referred to simply as spin) and leads to an effective spin-orbit coupling for the fermions in the trap. Reflections of the fermions from the trap boundaries provide a physical mechanism for effective momentum relaxation and nontrivial spin dynamics due to the emergent spin-orbit coupling. We explicitly consider evolution of an initially spin-polarized Fermi gas in a two-dimensional harmonic trap and derive nonequilibrium behavior of the spin polarization. It shows periodic echoes with a frequency equal to the harmonic trapping frequency. Perturbations, such as an asymmetry of the trap, lead to the suppression of the spin echo amplitudes. We discuss a possible experimental setup to observe spin dynamics and provide numerical estimates of relevant parameters.     

Enhanced spin polarization in an asymmetric magnetic graphene superlattice

The authors investigate the spin-resolved transport through an asymmetrical magnetic graphene superlattice (MGS) consisting of the periodic barriers with abnormal one in height. To quantitatively depict the asymmetrical MGS, an asymmetry factor has been introduced to measure the height change of the abnormal barrier. It is shown that the spin filter effect is strongly enhanced by the barrier asymmetry both in the Klein and the classical tunneling regimes. In the presence of abnormal barrier, the conductance with certain spin direction is suppressed with respect to different tunneling regimes, and thus high spin polarization with opposite sign can be achieved.     

Local charge and spin currents in magnetothermal landscapes

A scannable laser beam is used to generate local thermal gradients in metallic (Co2FeAl) or insulating (Y3Fe5O12) ferromagnetic thin films. We study the resulting local charge and spin currents that arise due to the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) and the spin Seebeck effect (SSE), respectively. In the local ANE experiments, we detect the voltage in the Co2FeAl thin film plane as a function of the laser-spot position and external magnetic field magnitude and orientation. The local SSE effect is detected in a similar fashion by exploiting the inverse spin Hall effect in a Pt layer deposited on top of the Y3Fe5O12. Our findings establish local thermal spin and charge current generation as well as spin caloritronic domain imaging.     

Anisotropic Spin Splitting in Step Quantum Wells

By the method of finite difference, the anisotropic spin splitting of the AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs/Aly Ga1-yAs/AlxGal-xAs step quantum wells （QWs） are theoretically investigated considering the interplay of the bulk inversion asymmetry and structure inversion asymmetry induced by step quantum well structure and external electric field. We demonstrate that the anisotropy of the total spin splitting can be controlled by the shape of the QWs and the external electric field. The interface related Rashba effect plays an important effect on the anisotropic spin splitting by influencing the magnitude of the spin splitting and the direction of electron spin. The Rashba spin splitting presents in the step quantum wells due to the interface related Rashba effect even without external electric field or magnetic field.     

Rashba spin-orbit effect on dwell time of electrons tunneling through semiconductor barrier

A study on characteristics of electrons tunneling through semiconductor barrier is evaluated, in which we take into account the effects of Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Our numerical results show that Rashba spin-orbit effect originating from the inversion asymmetry can give rise to the spin polarization. The spin polarization does not increase linearly but shows obvious resonant features as the strength of Rashba spin-orbit coupling increases, and the amplitudes of spin polarization can reach the highest around the first resonant energy level. Furthermore, it is found that electrons with different spin orientations will spend quite different time through the same heterostructures. The difference of the dwell time between spin-up and spin-down electrons arise from the Rashba spin-orbit coupling. And it is also found that the dwell time will reach its maximum at the first resonant energy level. It can be concluded that, in the time domain, the tunneling processes of the spin-up and spin-down electrons can be separated by modulating the strength of Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Study results indicate that Rashba spin-orbit effect can cause a nature spin filter mechanism in the time domain.     

On the observation of the fine structure effect in non-relativistic (e, 2e) processes

The spin asymmetry arising in an (e,2e) process using spin-polarized incoming electrons with non-relativistic energies is shown to be dominated by the fine structure effect if a suitable kinematical regime is chosen. Calculations in the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) for both the triple differential cross-section and the spin asymmetry are presented for the inner shell ionization of argon. This process would provide an accessible target for existing experimental set-ups.     

Spectral sideband distribution asymmetry in fiber laser

A ring fiber laser with SESAM mode-locking mechanism is constructed. The spectral sideband distribution asymmetry of solitons is observed in the fiber laser. There are different order sidebands distributed in two edges of the soliton spectrum. Through experimentally studying the effect of the different gain media lengths on the mode-locked solitons, it is found that the spectral sideband asymmetry occurs at the long wavelength band of erbium-doped fiber (EDF) gain profile. The origin of sideband asymmetry is owing to the secondary amplification gain profile of EDF, which is pumped by the first gain peak at 1530 nm. Furthermore, an extra in-line polarizer is imported in the cavity for studying the effect of the polarization bias on sidebands. It is found that the polarization bias in the cavity is an important control method to adjust the power and generate the spectral sidebands. However, the polarization bias does not decide the generation of spectral sideband distribution asymmetry.     

Pure spin-current diode based on interacting quantum dot tunneling junction

A magnetic field-controlled spin-current diode is theoretically proposed, which consists of a junction with an interacting quantum dot sandwiched between a pair of nonmagnetic electrodes. By applying a spin bias V_S across the junction, a pure spin current can be obtained in a certain gate voltage regime,regardless of whether the Coulomb repulsion energy exists. More interestingly, if we applied an external magnetic field on the quantum dot, we observed a clear asymmetry in the spectrum of spin current I_S as a function of spin bias, while the charge current always decays to zero in the Coulomb blockade regime. Such asymmetry in the current profile suggests a spin diode-like behavior with respect to the spin bias, while the net charge through the device is almost zero. Different from the traditional charge current diode, this design can change the polarity direction and rectifying ability by adjusting the external magnetic field, which is very convenient. This device scheme can be compatible with current technologies and has potential applications in spintronics or quantum processing.     

Green's function theory for the one-dimensional antiferromagnet with antisymmetric exchange

The spin wave spectrum for the one-dimensional antiferromagnet with antisymmetric exchange is obtained from second order Green's function theory. There is a noticeable asymmetry in the spin wave dispersion curve, which has an effect on the static correlation function and the correlation length.     

Polarized antiquark flavor asymmetry in Drell–Yan pair production

We investigate the role of the flavor asymmetry of the nucleon's polarized antiquark distributions in Drell–Yan lepton pair production in polarized nucleon–nucleon collisions at HERA (fixed–target) and RHIC energies. It is shown that the large polarized antiquark flavor asymmetry predicted by model calculations in the large– limit (chiral quark–soliton model) has a dramatic effect on the double spin asymmetries in high mass lepton pair production, as well as on the single spin asymmetries in lepton pair production through –bosons at . Received: 31 May 2000 / Revised version: 1 December 2000 / Published online: 5 February 2001     

Multifunctionality for the nanojunction of a rotating p-phenylene vinylene molecule between graphene leads

With the multi-functional molecular device based on graphene nanoribbon being deeply studied in experiment, the zigzag-edged graphene device is still worth to investigate. Employing the ab-initio method, the spin transport properties have been studied for the nanojunctions consisting of a p-phenylene vinylene (PPV) molecule sandwiched between two-probe leads of zigzag-edged graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs). A series of obvious electromagnetic transmission functionalities, including spin switching, negative differential resistance (NDR), dual spin-filtering, magnetoresistance and spin-diode behaviors, are numerically referred in the proposed molecular junction within spin parallel or antiparallel configurations. The performance of switching and double spin filtering can be explained by the transport spectra or total transmission pathways. Besides, the rectification effect is due to the asymmetry spatial distribution of the local density of states as well as the corresponding coupling between the PPV molecule and leads. It is expected that the designed models can be ideal candidate for future spintronic device.     

Theory of spin precession monitored by laser pulse

We first predict the splitting of a spin degenerate impurity level when this impurity is irradiated by a circularly polarized laser beam tuned in the transparency region of a semiconductor. This splitting, which comes from different exchange processes between the impurity electron and the virtual pairs coupled to the pump beam, induces a spin precession around the laser beam axis, which lasts as long as the pump pulse. It can thus be used for ultrafast spin manipulation. This effect, which has similarities with the exciton optical Stark effect we studied long ago, is here derived using the concepts we developed very recently to treat many-body interactions between composite excitons and which make the physics of this type of effects quite transparent. They, in particular, allow to easily extend this work to other experimental situations in which a spin rotates under laser irradiation.     

The above-threshold detachment of negative ions in half-cycle laser field

We study partial detachment rate and photodetachment asymmetry of F⁻ detached by half-cycle linearly polarized laser field using numerical simulation. Similar to photodetachment for negative ions in few-cycle laser fields, we find that partial detachment rates of a couple opposite directions in the above-threshold detachment of F⁻ are not equal, the detachment is asymmetric. Furthermore, the photodetachment asymmetry degree increases with carrier-envelop phase (CEP) as the peak laser intensity becoming stronger or the pulse width becoming shorter. The maximal asymmetry degree is stronger with higher laser intensity. We confirm the effect of the CEP, laser intensity and pulse width on the above-threshold detachment of F⁻ in half-cycle laser fields. It provides a possible way to determine the CEP of half-cycle laser fields by measuring detached photoelectrons.     

Single transverse spin asymmetry of prompt photon production

We study the single transverse spin asymmetry of prompt photon production in high energy proton–proton scattering. We include the contributions from both the direct and fragmentation photons. While the asymmetry for direct photon production receives only the Sivers type of contribution, the asymmetry for fragmentation photons receives both the Sivers and Collins types of contributions. We make a model calculation for quark-to-photon Collins function, which is then used to estimate the Collins asymmetry for fragmentation photons. We find that the Collins asymmetry for fragmentation photons is very small, thus the single transverse spin asymmetry of prompt photon production is mainly coming from the Sivers asymmetry in direct and fragmentation photons. We make predictions for the prompt photon spin asymmetry at RHIC energy, and emphasize the importance of such a measurement. The asymmetry of prompt photon production can provide a good measurement for the important twist-three quark–gluon correlation function, which is urgently needed in order to resolve the “sign mismatch” puzzle.     

Spin-dependent resonant tunneling in ZnSe/ZnMnSe heterostructures

Using the transfer matrix method and the effective-mass approximation, the effect of resonant states on spin transport is studied in ZnSe/ZnMnSe/ZnSe/ZnMnSe/ZnSe structures under the influence of both electric and magnetic fields. The numerical results show that the ZnMnSe layers, which act as spin filters, polarize the electric currents. Variation of thickness of the central ZnSe layer shifts the resonant levels and exhibits an oscillatory behavior in spin current densities. It is also shown that the spin polarization of the tunneling current in geometrical asymmetry of the heterostructure where two ZnMnSe layers have different Mn concentrations, depends strongly on the thickness and the applied bias.     

Beam normal spin asymmetries: Theory

The beam normal spin asymmetry in elastic electron-nucleon scattering is discussed. This beam normal spin asymmetry depends on the imaginary part of two-photon exchange processes between electron and nucleon, and measures the non-forward structure functions of the nucleon. After briefly reviewing the theoretical formalism, we discuss calculations in the threshold region, in the resonance region, as well as in the diffractive region, corresponding with high energy and forward angles.