Coherent spin dynamics of different density high mobility two-dimensional electron gas in a GaAs quantum well

We have addressed the dependence of quasi-two-dimensional electron spin dephasing time on the electron gas density in a 17-nm GaAs quantum well using the time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect. A superlinear increase in the electron dephasing time with decreasing electron density has been found. The degree of electron spin relaxation anisotropy has been measured and the dependence of spin-orbit splitting on electron gas density has been determined.     

Electrical detection of spin accumulation in a p-type GaAs quantum well

We report on experiments in which a spin-polarized current is injected from a GaMnAs ferromagnetic electrode into a GaAs layer through an AlAs barrier. The resulting spin polarization in GaAs is detected by measuring how the tunneling current, to a second GaMnAs ferromagnetic electrode, depends on the orientation of its magnetization. Our results can be accounted for by sequential tunneling with the nonrelaxed spin splitting of the chemical potential, that is, spin accumulation, in GaAs. We discuss the conditions on the hole spin relaxation time in GaAs that are required to obtain the large effects we observe.     

Electrical control of hole spin relaxation in charge tunable InAs/GaAs quantum dots

We report on optical orientation of singly charged excitons (trions) in charge-tunable self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots. When the charge varies from 0 to -2, the trion photoluminescence of a single quantum dot shows up and under quasiresonant excitation gets progressively polarized from zero to approximately 100%. This behavior is interpreted as the electric control of the trion thermalization process, which subsequently acts on the hole-spin relaxation driven in nanosecond time scale by the anisotropic electron-hole exchange. This is supported by the excitation spectroscopy and time-resolved measurements of a quantum dot ensemble.     

Resonant intrinsic spin hall effect in p-type GaAs quantum well structure

We study intrinsic spin Hall effect in p-type GaAs quantum well structure described by Luttinger Hamiltonian and a Rashba spin-orbit coupling arising from the structural inversion symmetry breaking. The Rashba term induces an energy level crossing in the lowest heavy hole subband, which gives rise to a resonant spin Hall conductance. The resonance may be used to identify the intrinsic spin Hall effect in experiments.     

Control of electron spin dynamics in a wide GaAs quantum well by a lateral confining potential

The spin dynamics of electrons laterally confined in a wide GaAs quantum well with the use of a special mosaic electrode deposited onto the sample plane has been investigated. Comparative measurements with a semitransparent electrode have been simultaneously carried out to distinguish changes in electron spin dynamics due to the band bending from those due to the lateral confinement controlled by applying an external bias. The electron spin lifetimes in the traps has been found to increase strongly with the applied bias. The measured values of the electron g-factor in the quantum well plane and the magnetic-field dependence of the electron spin lifetimes indicate the emergence of strong three-dimensional confinement in the center of an orifice in the mosaic electrode. The examined electron spin relaxation anisotropy is caused by the anisotropy of the confining potential.     

Strain-assisted spin manipulation in a quantum well

We show that the efficiency of manipulating electron spins in semiconductor quantum wells can be enhanced by tuning strain strengths. The combined effects of intrinsic and strain-induced spinorbit couplings vary for different quantum wells, which provide an alternative route to understand the experimental phenomena brought in by the strain. The contribution to the electron-dipole-spin-resonance intensity induced by the strain can be changed through adjusting the direction of the ac electric field in the x-y plane of the quantum well and tuning the strain strengths.     

Coherent Zeeman resonance from electron spin coherence in a mixed-type GaAs/AlAs quantum well

Coherent Zeeman resonance from electron spin coherence is demonstrated in a Lambda-type three-level system, coupling electron spin states via trions. The optical control of electron density that is characteristic of a mixed-type quantum-well facilitates the study of trion formation as well as the effects of many-body interactions on the manifestation of electron spin coherence in the nonlinear optical response.     

High temperature gate control of quantum well spin memory

Time-resolved optical measurements in (110)-oriented GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells show a tenfold increase of the spin-relaxation rate as a function of applied electric field from 20 to 80 kV cm(-1) at 170 K and indicate a similar variation at 300 K, in agreement with calculations based on the Rashba effect. Spin relaxation is almost field independent below 20 kV cm(-1) reflecting quantum well interface asymmetry. The results indicate the achievability of a voltage-gateable spin-memory time longer than 3 ns simultaneously with a high electron mobility.     

Forced charge oscillations in a double quantum dot

The two-electron wave function and charge distribution are obtained in a symmetric double quantum dot in a weak variable electric field. It is shown that the action of a variable field under resonance conditions when the perturbation frequency is close to the frequency of the quantum transition leads to the appearance of electron density oscillations between the dots having the characteristic form of beats. However, the Coulomb repulsion between the electrons strongly “quenches” the amplitude of the beats even in a resonant variable field.     

Optical measurement and control of spin diffusion in n-doped GaAs quantum wells

Transient spin gratings are used to study spin diffusion in lightly n-doped GaAs quantum wells at low temperatures. The spin grating is shown to form in the excess electrons from doping, providing spin relaxation and transport properties of the carriers most relevant to spintronic applications. We demonstrate that spin diffusion of the these carriers is accelerated by increasing the density or energy of the optically excited carriers. These results can be used to better understand and even control spin transport in experiments that optically excite spin-polarized carriers.     

Investigation of the effects of spin injection of charge carriers from a ferromagnetic Ni(Co)/GaAs Schottky contact in quantum well heterostructures

The circularly polarized electroluminescence of quantum-confined InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with a ferromagnetic Ni(Co)/GaAs Schottky contact has been investigated. It is shown that the high degree of circular polarization (to 42%) is due to the injection of spin-polarized holes from the ferromagnetic metal. The dependence of the spin injection efficiency on the type of the metal/GaAs interface and the quantum well depth has been analyzed. The spin coherence length of holes was found to be ≈80 nm at 1.5 K.     

Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in a ring with a quantum well

Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in a ring with a quantum well are investigated in the ballistic regime. It is shown that when trajectories with multiple circuits around the ring are taken into account, the maxima in the conductivity correspond to resonance levels of an isolated ring. The results obtained are in qualitative agreement with the experiment performed by Yakoby, Heiblum, Mahalu, and Shtrikman [Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4047 (1995)]: Although the scattering phase of an electron scattered by a quantum well changes by π on passage through each resonance, the Aharonov-Bohm curves for the centers of neighboring resonances are identical. In the simplified interpretation employed by Yakoby et al. the latter result looks like an identical scattering phase in neighboring resonances. Pis’ma Zh. ωksp. Teor. Fiz. 66, No. 9, 605–610 (10 November 1997)     

Anisotropic spin diffusion in a semiconductor quantum well

We show that spin diffusion of an inhomogeneous spin-density distribution in an asymmetric zinc-blende semiconductor quantum well is anisotropic in coordinate space, if the D’yakonov–Perel’spin-relaxation mechanism is dominant. This anisotropy depends on the relation between the Dresselhaus and Rashba contributions to the spin splitting and reaches its maximum when both contributions are equal in magnitude. Under this condition, the temporal behavior of spin density strongly depends on the relation between the initial spatial extent of the spin packet and spin diffusion length.     

Gate control of dynamic nuclear polarization in GaAs quantum wells

Gate control of dynamic nuclear polarization under optical orientation is demonstrated in a Schottky-gated n-GaAs/AlGaAs (110) quantum well by time-resolved Kerr rotation measurements. Spin relaxation of electrons due to mechanisms other than the hyperfine interaction is effectively suppressed as the donor induced background electron density is reduced from metallic to insulating regimes. Subsequent accumulation of photoexcited electron spins dramatically enhances dynamic nuclear polarization at low magnetic field, allowing us to tune nuclear spin polarization by external gate voltages.     

Full electrical control of the electron spin relaxation in GaAs quantum wells

The electron spin dynamics in (111)-oriented GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells is studied by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. By applying an external electric field of 50 kV/cm a two-order of magnitude increase of the spin relaxation time can be observed reaching values larger than 30 ns; this is a consequence of the electric field tuning of the spin-orbit conduction band splitting which can almost vanish when the Rashba term compensates exactly the Dresselhaus one. The measurements under a transverse magnetic field demonstrate that the electron spin relaxation time for the three space directions can be tuned simultaneously with the applied electric field.     

Nonadiabatic two-parameter charge and spin pumping in a quantum dot

We study dc charge and spin transport through a weakly coupled quantum dot, driven by a nonadiabatic periodic change of system parameters. We generalize the model of Tien and Gordon to simultaneously oscillating voltages and tunnel couplings. When applying our general result to the two-parameter charge pumping in quantum dots, we find interference effects between the oscillations of the voltage and tunnel couplings. We show that these interference effects may explain recent measurements in metallic islands. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility to electrically pump a spin current in presence of a static magnetic field.