No Arabic abstract
We report on microwave (mw) radiation induced electric currents in (Cd,Mn)Te/(Cd,Mg)Te and InAs/(In,Ga)As quantum wells subjected to an external in-plane magnetic field. The current generation is attributed to the spin-dependent energy relaxation of electrons heated by mw radiation. The relaxation produces equal and oppositely directed electron flows in the spin-up and spin-down subbands yielding a pure spin current. The Zeeman splitting of the subbands in the magnetic field leads to the conversion of the spin flow into a spin-polarized electric current.
We report on the study of spin-polarized electric currents in diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) quantum wells subjected to an in-plane external magnetic field and illuminated by microwave or terahertz radiation. The effect is studied in (Cd,Mn)Te/(Cd,Mg)Te quantum wells (QWs) and (In,Ga)As/InAlAs:Mn QWs belonging to the well known II-VI and III-V DMS material systems, as well as, in heterovalent AlSb/InAs/(Zn,Mn)Te QWs which represent a promising combination of II-VI and III-V semiconductors. Experimental data and developed theory demonstrate that the photocurrent originates from a spin-dependent scattering of free carriers by static defects or phonons in the Drude absorption of radiation and subsequent relaxation of carriers. We show that in DMS structures the efficiency of the current generation is drastically enhanced compared to non-magnetic semiconductors. The enhancement is caused by the exchange interaction of carrier spins with localized spins of magnetic ions resulting, on the one hand, in the giant Zeeman spin-splitting, and, on the other hand, in the spin-dependent carrier scattering by localized Mn2+ ions polarized by an external magnetic field.
In spin-based electronics, information is encoded by the spin state of electron bunches. Processing this information requires the controlled transport of spin angular momentum through a solid, preferably at frequencies reaching the so far unexplored terahertz (THz) regime. Here, we demonstrate, by experiment and theory, that the temporal shape of femtosecond spin-current bursts can be manipulated by using specifically designed magnetic heterostructures. A laser pulse is employed to drive spins from a ferromagnetic Fe thin film into a nonmagnetic cap layer that has either low (Ru) or high (Au) electron mobility. The resulting transient spin current is detected by means of an ultrafast, contactless amperemeter based on the inverse spin Hall effect that converts the spin flow into a THz electromagnetic pulse. We find that the Ru cap layer yields a considerably longer spin-current pulse because electrons are injected in Ru d states that have a much smaller mobility than Au sp states. Thus, spin current pulses and the resulting THz transients can be shaped by tailoring magnetic heterostructures, which opens the door for engineering high-speed spintronic devices as well as broadband THz emitters in particular covering the elusive range from 5 to 10THz.
We demonstrate a mesoscopic spin polarizer/analyzer system that allows the spin polarization of current from a quantum point contact in an in-plane magnetic field to be measured. A transverse focusing geometry is used to couple current from an emitter point contact into a collector point contact. At large in-plane fields, with the point contacts biased to transmit only a single spin (g < e^2/h), the voltage across the collector depends on the spin polarization of the current incident on it. Spin polarizations of greater than 80% are found for both emitter and collector at 300mK and 7T in-plane field.
We present Maxwell equations with source terms for the electromagnetic field interacting with a moving electron in a spin-orbit coupled semiconductor heterostructure. We start with the eight--band ${bm k}{bm p}$ model and derive the electric and magnetic polarization vectors using the Gordon--like decomposition method. Next, we present the ${bm k}{bm p}$ effective Lagrangian for the nonparabolic conduction band electrons interacting with electromagnetic field in semiconductor heterostructures with abrupt interfaces. This Lagrangian gives rise to the Maxwell equations with source terms and boundary conditions at heterointerfaces as well as equations for the electron envelope wave function in the external electromagnetic field together with appropriate boundary conditions. As an example, we consider spin--orbit effects caused by the structure inversion asymmetry for the conduction electron states. We compute the intrinsic contribution to the electric polarization of the steady state electron gas in asymmetric quantum well in equilibrium and in the spin Hall regime. We argue that this contribution, as well as the intrinsic spin Hall current, are not cancelled by the elastic scattering processes.
We report on the study of terahertz radiation induced MIRO-like oscillations of magneto-resistivity in GaAs heterostructures. Our experiments provide an answer on two most intriguing questions - effect of radiation helicity and the role of the edges - yielding crucial information for understanding of the MIRO origin. Moreover, we demonstrate that the range of materials exhibiting radiation-induced magneto-oscillations can be largely extended by using high-frequency radiation.