Size- and voltage-dependent spin polarization in hybrid ferromagnetic-Schottky-metal and semiconductor nanostructure

Recently, an electron-spin filter was proposed by depositing two nanosized ferromagnetic metal stripe and Schottky normal metal stripe on the top of the semiconductor heterostructure [F. Zhai, H.Q. Xu, Y.Guo, Phys. Rev. B 70 (2004) 085308]. In this paper, we theoretically investigate the effect of device parameters on electron-spin polarization in the spin filter. It is shown that the electron-spin polarization is dependent greatly on the sizes and the position of the stripes. Thus, a quantum size effect exists in this device and the optimal spin polarization can be achieved by felicitously fabricating the stripes. It also is shown that the spin polarization can be altered by adjusting the electric-barrier height induced by an applied voltage to the Schottky metal stripe, which can result in a voltage-tunable electron-spin filter.     

本征GaAs中电子自旋极化的能量演化研究

采用时间分辨圆偏振光抽运-探测光谱,研究9.6 K温度下本征GaAs中电子自旋相干弛豫动力学,发现反映电子自旋相干的吸收量子拍的振幅随光子能量的增加呈非单调性变化.考虑自旋极化依赖的带填充效应和带隙重整化效应,发展了圆偏振光抽运-探测光谱的理论模型.该模型表明量子拍的振幅依赖于所探测能级的电子初始自旋极化度,自旋探测灵敏度以及带填充因子,三者的乘积导致了量子拍振幅的非单调变化,与实验结果一致.给出了能级分裂的二能级系统中电子自旋极化度定义.发现在高能级上可以获得100%的初始电子自旋极化度. 关键词： 圆偏振光抽运-探测光谱 吸收量子拍 电子自旋极化度 GaAs     

铁磁、肖特基金属和半导体纳米自旋过滤器中的量子尺寸效应

采用转移矩阵法,研究了结构尺度对自旋过滤器中电子自旋极化特性的影响．该自旋过滤器可以通过在半导体异质结上沉积纳米尺度的铁磁条带和肖特基金属条带来实现．计算结果表明,电子的自旋极化特性强烈依赖于铁磁条带和肖特基金属条带的结构尺度和位置,即该器件中存在量子尺寸效应．此外,我们的计算结果还表明,电子的自旋极化特性还与施加在肖特基金属条上的电压所诱发的电垒高度密切相关．因此,我们可以通过改变施加在肖特基金属条上的电压来调控该器件中电子的自旋极化特性,制造一个电压可调的电子自旋过滤器．     

Overhauser effect of 67Zn nuclear spins in ZnO via cross relaxation induced by the zero-point fluctuations of the phonon field

Hole burning in and displacements of the magnetic-resonance absorption line of the electron spin of the shallow hydrogen-related donor in ZnO are observed upon resonant irradiation with microwaves at 275 GHz and at 4.5 K in a magnetic field of 10 T. These effects arise from an almost complete polarization of the many 67Zn (I=5/2) nuclear spins that have an isotropic hyperfine interaction with the electron spin of the shallow donor. It is proposed that this huge dynamic nuclear polarization is caused by a spontaneous-emission-type cross relaxation in the coupled electron-spin nuclear-spin system induced by the zero-point fluctuations of the phonon field.     

Enhancing the coherence of a spin qubit by operating it as a feedback loop that controls its nuclear spin bath

In many realizations of electron spin qubits the dominant source of decoherence is the fluctuating nuclear spin bath of the host material. The slowness of this bath lends itself to a promising mitigation strategy where the nuclear spin bath is prepared in a narrowed state with suppressed fluctuations. Here, this approach is realized for a two-electron spin qubit in a GaAs double quantum dot and a nearly tenfold increase in the inhomogeneous dephasing time T?* is demonstrated. Between subsequent measurements, the bath is prepared by using the qubit as a feedback loop that first measures its nuclear environment by coherent precession, and then polarizes it depending on the final state. This procedure results in a stable fixed point at a nonzero polarization gradient between the two dots, which enables fast universal qubit control.     

Optical spin injection and spin lifetime in Ge heterostructures

We demonstrate optical orientation in Ge/SiGe quantum wells and study their spin properties. The ultrafast electron transfer from the center of the Brillouin zone to its edge allows us to achieve high spin polarizations and to resolve the spin dynamics of holes and electrons. The circular polarization degree of the direct gap photoluminescence exceeds the theoretical bulk limit, yielding ～37% and ～85% for transitions with heavy and light holes states, respectively. The spin lifetime of holes at the top of the valence band is estimated to be ～0.5 ps and it is governed by transitions between light and heavy hole states. Electrons at the bottom of the conduction band, on the other hand, have a spin lifetime that exceeds 5?ns below 150?K. Theoretical analysis of the spin relaxation indicates that phonon-induced intervalley scattering dictates the spin lifetime of electrons.     

Quantum-classical reentrant relaxation crossover in Dy2Ti2O7 spin ice

We have studied spin relaxation in the spin ice compound Dy2Ti2O7 through measurements of the ac magnetic susceptibility. While the characteristic spin-relaxation time (tau) is thermally activated at high temperatures, it becomes almost temperature independent below T(cross) approximately 13 K. This behavior, combined with nonmonotonic magnetic field dependence of tau, indicates that quantum tunneling dominates the relaxational process below that temperature. As the low-entropy spin ice state develops below T(ice) approximately 4 K, tau increases sharply with decreasing temperature, suggesting the emergence of a collective degree of freedom for which thermal relaxation processes again become important as the spins become strongly correlated.     

Exactly solvable spin dynamics of an electron coupled to a large number of nuclei; the electron-nuclear spin echo in a quantum dot

The model used to describe the spin dynamics in quantum dots after optical excitation is considered. Problems of the electron-spin polarization decay and the dependence of the steady-state polarization on magnetic field are solved on the basis of exact diagonalization of the model Hamiltonian. An important role of the nuclear state is shown and methods of its calculation for different regimes of optical excitation are proposed. The effect of spin echo generation after application of a π pulse of a magnetic field is predicted for the system under consideration.     

Modulated replica symmetry breaking schemes for antiferrimagnetic spin glasses

The temperature and voltage dependence of spin transport is theoretically investigated in a new type of magnetic tunnel junction, which consists of two ferromagnetic outer electrodes separated by a ferromagnetic barrier and a nonmagnetic (NM) metallic spacer. The effect of spin fluctuation in magnetic barrier, which plays an important role at finite temperature, is included by taking the mean-field approximation. It is found that, the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) and the electron-spin polarization depend strongly on the temperature and the applied voltage. The TMR and spin polarization at different temperatures show an oscillatory behavior as a function of the NM spacer thickness. Also, the amplitude of these oscillations is regularly reduced when the temperature increases. The maximum TMR value, varies approximately from 270 in reverse bias (at T = 0 K) to 25 in forward bias (at ).Received: 25 June 2004, Published online: 14 December 2004PACS: 72.25.Hg Electrical injection of spin polarized carriers - 73.23.Ad Ballistic transport - 73.40.Gk Tunneling     

本征GaAs中电子自旋极化对电子复合动力学的影响研究

采用时间分辨圆偏振光和线偏振光抽运-探测光谱,研究了9.6 K温度下本征GaAs中自旋极化电子与非极化电子的复合动力学及其随光子能量演化.发现自旋极化对电子复合动力学具有显著影响.仅在导带底附近测量时,两种方法测试到的复合寿命一致,而在高过超能量电子态测量时,两种方法测试到的复合寿命不一致.指出时间分辨法拉第光谱中,用于反演求解电子自旋相干寿命的电子复合寿命应该使用圆偏振光抽运-探测获得的复合寿命,而不是线偏振光抽运-探测获得的寿命.理论计算与实验结果吻合较好. 关键词： 圆偏振光抽运-探测光谱 自旋量子拍 自旋极化 GaAs     

Generalized Elliott-Yafet theory of electron spin relaxation in metals: origin of the anomalous electron spin lifetime in MgB2

The temperature dependence of the electron-spin relaxation time in MgB2 is anomalous as it does not follow the resistivity above 150 K; it has a maximum around 400 K and decreases for higher temperatures. This violates the well established Elliot-Yafet theory of spin relaxation in metals. The anomaly occurs when the quasiparticle scattering rate (in energy units) is comparable to the energy difference between the conduction and a neighboring bands. The anomalous behavior is related to the unique band structure of MgB2 and the large electron-phonon coupling. The saturating spin relaxation is the spin transport analogue of the Ioffe-Regel criterion of electron transport.     

Independent freezing of charge and spin dynamics in La1.5Sr0.5CoO4

We present elastic and quasielastic neutron scattering measurements characterizing peculiar short-range charge-orbital and spin order in the layered perovskite material La1.5Sr0.5CoO4. We find that below T(c) approximately 750 K holes introduced by Sr doping lose mobility and enter a statically ordered charge glass phase with loosely correlated checkerboard arrangement of empty and occupied d(3z(2)-r(2)) orbitals ( Co3+ and Co2+). The dynamics of the resultant mixed spin system is governed by the anisotropic nature of the crystal-field Hamiltonian and the peculiar exchange pattern produced by the orbital order. It undergoes a spin freezing transition at a much lower temperature, T(s) less, similar30 K.     

Frequency-selective laser optical pumping and spin exchange of cesium with129Xe and131Xe in a high magnetic field

We report the experimental results of frequency-selective laser optical pumping and spin exchange of Cs with¹²⁹Xe and¹³¹Xe in a high magnetic field of 11.74 T. Our results show that hyperpolarized¹²⁹Xe and¹³¹Xe nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals exhibit alternating phases when the laser frequency for pumping the cesium atoms is changed, which is explained on the basis of the high-field optical pumping of Cs. We obtain about 3% polarization of the¹²⁹Xe. The electron-spin polarization of the Cs atoms has been measured to be about 22% with a simple NMR method.     

Thermoelectric response of spin polarization in Rashba spintronic systems

Motivated by the recent discovery of a strongly spin–orbit-coupled two-dimensional (2D) electron gas near the surface of Rashba semiconductors BiTeX (X= Cl, Br, I), we calculate the thermoelectric responses of spin polarization in a 2D Rashba model. By self-consistently determining the energyand band-dependent transport time, we present an exact solution of the linearized Boltzmann equation for elastic scattering. Using this solution, we find a non-Edelstein electric-field-induced spin polarization that is linear in the Fermi energy E_F when E_F lies below the band crossing point. The spin polarization efficiency, which is the electric-field-induced spin polarization divided by the driven electric current, increases for smaller E_F .We show that, as a function of E_F, the temperaturegradient-induced spin polarization increases continuously to a saturation value when EF decreases below the band crossing point. As the temperature tends to zero, the temperature-gradient-induced spin polarization vanishes.     

Anomalous frequency shift of negative muon spin precession in n‐type silicon

The dependence of the residual polarization of negative muons in n‐type Si with impurity concentration (1.6\pm 0.2)\times 10¹³\ cm^-3 on temperature in the 10–300 K range has been investigated. Measurements were carried out in external magnetic field of 0.08 T transverse to the muon spin. Muon spin relaxation and frequency shift were observed at temperatures below 30 K. The relaxation rate at 30 K is equal to 0.25\pm 0.08\,μ s^-1. The frequency shift at 20 K is equal to 7\times 10^-3. Both the relaxation rate and the frequency shift grow with decrease of temperature. Below 30 K the relaxation rate is well described by the dependence \varLambda=bT^-q, where q=2.8. An analysis of present and earlier published data on behavior of negative muon polarization in silicon is given. A possible mechanism of relaxation and frequency shift of muon spin precession in silicon is considered. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Nuclear spin dynamics in the quantum regime of a single-molecule magnet

We show that the nuclear spin dynamics in the single-molecule magnet Mn12-ac below 1 K is governed by quantum tunneling fluctuations of the cluster spins, combined with intercluster nuclear spin diffusion. We also obtain the first experimental proof that-surprisingly-even deep in the quantum regime the nuclear spins remain in good thermal contact with the lattice phonons. We propose a simple model for how T-independent tunneling fluctuations can relax the nuclear polarization to the lattice that may serve as a framework for more sophisticated theories.     

NMR evidence for gapped spin excitations in metallic carbon nanotubes

We report on the spin dynamics of 13C isotope enriched inner walls in double-wall carbon nanotubes using 13C nuclear magnetic resonance. Contrary to expectations, we find that our data set implies that the spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) has the same temperature (T) and magnetic field (H) dependence for most of the inner-wall nanotubes detected by NMR. In the high-temperature regime (T approximately > or = 150 K), we find that the T and H dependence of 1/T1T is consistent with a 1D metallic chain. For T approximately < or = 150 K we find a significant increase in 1/T1T with decreasing T, followed by a sharp drop below approximately = 20 K. The data clearly indicate the formation of a gap in the spin excitation spectrum, where the gap value 2delta approximately = 40 K (congruent to 3.7 meV) is H independent.     

Long time evolution of a spin interacting with a spin bath in arbitrary magnetic field

We introduce a completely different method to calculate the evolution of a spin interacting with a sufficient large spin bath,especially suitable for treating the central spin model in a quantum dot(QD).With only an approximation on the envelope of central spin,the symmetry can be exploited to reduce a huge Hilbert space which cannot be calculated with computers to many small ones which can be solved exactly.This method can be used to calculate spin-bath evolution for a spin bath containing many(say,1000)spins,without a perturbative limit such as strong magnetic field condition,and works for long-time regime with sufficient accuracy.As the spin-bath evolution can be calculated for a wide range of time and magnetic field,an optimal dynamic of spin flip-flop can be found,and more sophisticated approaches to achieve extremely high polarization of nuclear spins in a QD could be developed.     

Coherent spin transport through a 350 micron thick silicon wafer

We use all-electrical methods to inject, transport, and detect spin-polarized electrons vertically through a 350-micron-thick undoped single-crystal silicon wafer. Spin precession measurements in a perpendicular magnetic field at different accelerating electric fields reveal high spin coherence with at least 13pi precession angles. The magnetic-field spacing of precession extrema are used to determine the injector-to-detector electron transit time. These transit time values are associated with output magnetocurrent changes (from in-plane spin-valve measurements), which are proportional to final spin polarization. Fitting the results to a simple exponential spin-decay model yields a conduction electron spin lifetime (T1) lower bound in silicon of over 500 ns at 60 K.