No Arabic abstract
We present time-resolved Kerr rotation measurements of electron spin dynamics in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction system that contains a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Due to the complex layer structure of this material the Kerr rotation signals contain information from electron spins in three different layers: the 2DEG layer, a GaAs epilayer in the heterostructure, and the underlying GaAs substrate. The 2DEG electrons can be observed at low pump intensities, using that they have a less negative g-factor than electrons in bulk GaAs regions. At high pump intensities, the Kerr signals from the GaAs epilayer and the substrate can be distinguished when using a barrier between the two layers that blocks intermixing of the two electron populations. This allows for stronger pumping of the epilayer, which results in a shift of the effective g-factor. Thus, three populations can be distinguished using differences in g-factor. We support this interpretation by studying how the spin dynamics of each population has its unique dependence on temperature, and how they correlate with time-resolved reflectance signals.
This paper reports on the observation and analysis of magnetotransport phenomena in the nonlinear differential resistance $r_{xx}=dV_{xx}/dI$ of high-mobility InGaAs/InP and GaAs/AlGaAs Hall bar samples driven by direct current, $Idc$. Specifically, it is observed that Shubnikov -de Haas (SdH) oscillations at large filling factors invert their phase at sufficiently large values of $Idc$. This phase inversion is explained as being due to an electron heating effect. In the quantum Hall effect regime the $r_{xx}$ oscillations transform into diamond-shaped patterns with different slopes corresponding to odd and even filling factors. The diamond-shaped features at odd filling factors can be used as a probe to determine spin energy gaps. A Zero Current Anomaly (ZCA) which manifests itself as a narrow dip in the $r_{xx}(Idc)$ characteristics at zero current, is also observed. The ZCA effect strongly depends upon temperature, vanishing above 1 K while the transport diamonds persist to higher temperatures. The transport diamonds and ZCA are fully reproduced in a higher mobility GaAs/AlGaAs Hall bar structure confirming that these phenomena reflect intrinsic properties of two-dimensional systems.
We present a self-consistent Schroedinger-Poisson scheme for simulation of electrostatic quantum dots defined in gated two-dimensional electron gas formed at n-AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction. The computational method is applied to a quantitative description of transport properties studied experimentally by Elzermann et al. [Appl. Phys. Lett. {bf 84}, 4617 (2004)]. The three-dimensional model describes the electrostatics of the entire device with a quantum dot that changes shape and floats inside a gated region when the applied voltages are varied. Our approach accounts for the metal electrodes of arbitrary geometry and configuration, includes magnetic field applied perpendicular to the growth direction, electron-electron correlation in the confined electron system and its interaction with the electron reservoir surrounding the quantum dot. We calculate the electric field, the space charge distribution as well as energies and wave functions of confined electrons to describe opening of two transport channels between the reservoir and the confined charge puddle. We determine the voltages for charging the dot with up to 4 electrons. The results are in a qualitative and quantitative agreement with the experimental data.
The effect of a lateral electric current on the photoluminescence H-band of an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure is investigated. The photoluminescence intensity and optical orientation of electrons contributing to the H-band are studied by means of continuous wave and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy and time-resolved Kerr rotation. It is shown that the H-band is due to recombination of the heavy holes localized at the heterointerface with photoexcited electrons attracted to the heterointerface from the GaAs layer. Two lines with significantly different decay times constitute the H-band: a short-lived high-energy one and a long-lived low-energy one. The high-energy line originates from recombination of electrons freely moving along the structure plane, while the low-energy one is due to recombination of donor-bound electrons near the interface. Application of the lateral electric field of ~ 100-200 V/cm results in a quenching of both lines. This quenching is due to a decrease of electron concentration near the heterointerface as a result of a photocurrent-induced heating of electrons in the GaAs layer. On the contrary, electrons near the heterointerface are effectively cooled, so the donors near the interface are not completely empty up to ~ 100 V/cm, which is in stark contrast with the case of bulk materials. The optical spin polarization of the donor-bound electrons near the heterointerface weakly depends on the electric field. Their polarization kinetics is determined by the spin dephasing in the hyperfine fields of the lattice nuclei. The long spin memory time (> 40 ns) can be associated with suppression of the Bir-Aronov-Pikus mechanism of spin relaxation for electrons.
We present a method to create spin-polarized beams of ballistic electrons in a two-dimensional electron system in the presence of spin-orbit interaction. Scattering of a spin-unpolarized injected beam from a lithographic barrier leads to the creation of two fully spin-polarized side beams, in addition to an unpolarized specularly reflected beam. Experimental magnetotransport data on InSb/InAlSb heterostructures demonstrate the spin-polarized reflection in a mesoscopic geometry, and confirm our theoretical predictions.
We measure the Hall conductivity of a two-dimensional electron gas formed at a GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction in the terahertz regime close to the cyclotron resonance frequency by employing a highly sensitive Faraday rotation method coupled with electrical gating of the sample to change the electron density. We observe clear plateau-and step-like features in the Faraday rotation angle vs. electron density and magnetic field (Landau-level filling factor), which are the high frequency manifestation of quantum Hall plateaus - a signature of topologically protected edge states. The results are compared to a recent dynamical scaling theory.