Kinetic theory of spin transport in n-typed semiconductor quantum wells

We set up a set of many-body kinetic Bloch equations with spacial inhomogeneity. We reexamine the widely adopted quasi-independent electron model (QIEM) and show the inadequacy of this model in studying the spin transport. We further point out a new decoherence effect based on interference effect of electrons/spins with different momentum ${\bf k}$ along the direction of the diffusion, which is referred as ``inhomogeneous broadening effect'' in our paper. We show that this inhomogeneous broadening can cause spin decoherence alone even in the absence of the scattering and that the resulting decoherence can be more important than the dephasing effect due to the D'yakonov-Perel' (DP) term together with the scattering. Our theory takes all the inhomogeneous broadening effect, the spin diffusion due to the spacial inhomogeneity and the spin dephasing into account and gets the results self-consistently. We further study the spin diffusion/transport of an $n$-typed GaAs quantum well (QW) in the steady state under different conditions, such as at different temperatures; in the presence of impurities; in the presence of external electric fields along the diffusion direction and/or the QW growth direction; and with magnetic fields in the Voigt configuration. We also demonstrate a time evolution of a spin package calculated from our many-body theory. Different features predicted from our many-body theory are highlighted in the paper.Comment: Some misprints in the previous version (Revised v2) are correcte

Intrinsic electron spin relaxation due to the D'yakonov-Perel' mechanism in monolayer MoS2_2

Intrinsic electron spin relaxation due to the D'yakonov-Perel' mechanism is studied in monolayer Molybdenum Disulphide. An intervalley in-plane spin relaxation channel is revealed due to the opposite effective magnetic fields perpendicular to the monolayer Molybdenum Disulphide plane in the two valleys together with the intervalley electron-phonon scattering. The intervalley electron-phonon scattering is always in the weak scattering limit, which leads to a rapid decrease of the in-plane spin relaxation time with increasing temperature. A decrease of the in-plane spin relaxation time with the increase of the electron density is also shown.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Current-Voltage Characteristics of Polymer Light-Emitting Diodes

Conduction in pristine conjugated polymers (other than polyacetylene) is by polaron hopping between sites corresponding to conjugation lengths. The strong increase of current $I$ with voltage $V$ observed for both emission-limited and ohmic contacts is due in large part to mobility increase as increasing field makes it more possible to overcome internal barriers, such as energy differences between sites. For emission-limited contacts an additional source of nonlinear increase of $I$ with increasing $V$ is greater ability to escpe return to the injecting electrode due to the image force. For ohmic contacts additional nonlinearity comes from space charge effects. We are able to fit $I$ vs. $V$ for electron or hole conduction in some poly($p$-phenylene vinylene), PPV, derivatives with ohmic contacts for reasonable values of the parameters involved.Comment: 9 pages, REVTeX, 1 figure is aviable upon request, to be published in SPIE pro

Kinetic theory of surface plasmon polariton in semiconductor nanowires

Based on the semiclassical model Hamiltonian of the surface plasmon polariton and the nonequilibrium Green-function approach, we present a microscopic kinetic theory to study the influence of the electron scattering on the dynamics of the surface plasmon polariton in semiconductor nanowires. The damping of the surface plasmon polariton originates from the resonant absorption by the electrons (Landau damping), and the corresponding damping exhibits size-dependent oscillations and distinct temperature dependence without any scattering. The scattering influences the damping by introducing a broadening and a shifting to the resonance. To demonstrate this, we investigate the damping of the surface plasmon polariton in InAs nanowires in the presence of the electron-impurity, electron-phonon and electron-electron Coulomb scatterings. The main effect of the electron-impurity and electron-phonon scatterings is to introduce a broadening, whereas the electron-electron Coulomb scattering can not only cause a broadening, but also introduce a shifting to the resonance. For InAs nanowires under investigation, the broadening due to the electron-phonon scattering dominates. As a result, the scattering has a pronounced influence on the damping of the surface plasmon polariton: The size-dependent oscillations are smeared out and the temperature dependence is also suppressed in the presence of the scattering. These results demonstrate the the important role of the scattering on the surface plasmon polariton damping in semiconductor nanowires.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure

Hot-carrier transport and spin relaxation on the surface of topological insulator

We study the charge and spin transport under high electric field (up to several kV/cm) on the surface of topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$, where the electron-surface optical phonon scattering dominates except at very low temperature. Due to the spin mixing of conduction and valence bands, the electric field not only accelerates electrons in each band, but also leads to inter-band precession. In the presence of the electric field, electrons can transfer from the valence band to the conduction one via the inter-band precession and inter-band electron-phonon scattering. The electron density in each band varies with the electric field linearly when the electric field is strong. Due to the spin-momentum locking, a transverse spin polarization, with the magnitude proportional to the momentum scattering time, is induced by the electric field. The induced spin polarization depends on the electric field linearly when the latter is small. Moreover, its magnitude is inversely proportional to the temperature and is insensitive to the electron density at high temperature. Our investigation also reveals that due to the large relative static dielectric constant, the Coulomb scattering is too weak to establish a drifted Fermi distribution with a unified hot-electron temperature in the steady state under the electric field. After turning off the electric field in the steady state, the hot carriers cool down in a time scale of energy relaxation which is very long (of the order of 100-1000 ps) while the spin polarization relaxes in a time scale of momentum scattering which is quite short (of the order of 0.01-0.1 ps).Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure