154 research outputs found
Spin-polarized electron transport in ferromagnet/semiconductor heterostructures: Unification of ballistic and diffusive transport
A theory of spin-polarized electron transport in ferromagnet/semiconductor
heterostructures, based on a unified semiclassical description of ballistic and
diffusive transport in semiconductor structures, is developed. The aim is to
provide a framework for studying the interplay of spin relaxation and transport
mechanism in spintronic devices. A key element of the unified description of
transport inside a (nondegenerate) semiconductor is the thermoballistic current
consisting of electrons which move ballistically in the electric field arising
from internal and external electrostatic potentials, and which are thermalized
at randomly distributed equilibration points. The ballistic component in the
unified description gives rise to discontinuities in the chemical potential at
the boundaries of the semiconductor, which are related to the Sharvin interface
conductance. By allowing spin relaxation to occur during the ballistic motion
between the equilibration points, a thermoballistic spin-polarized current and
density are constructed in terms of a spin transport function. An integral
equation for this function is derived for arbitrary values of the momentum and
spin relaxation lengths. For field-driven transport in a homogeneous
semiconductor, the integral equation can be converted into a second-order
differential equation that generalizes the standard spin drift-diffusion
equation. The spin polarization in ferromagnet/semiconductor heterostructures
is obtained by invoking continuity of the current spin polarization and
matching the spin-resolved chemical potentials on the ferromagnet sides of the
interfaces. Allowance is made for spin-selective interface resistances.
Examples are considered which illustrate the effects of transport mechanism and
electric field.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, REVTEX 4; minor corrections introduced; to
appear in Phys. Rev.
Local spin density in two-dimensional electron gas with hexagonal boundary
The intrinsic spin-Hall effect in hexagon-shaped samples is investigated. To
take into account the spin-orbit couplings and to fit the hexagon edges, we
derive the triangular version of the tight-binding model for the linear Rashba
[Sov. Phys. Solid State 2, 1109 (1960)] and Dresselhaus [Phys. Rev. 100, 580
(1955)] [001] Hamiltonians, which allow direct application of the
Landauer-Keldysh non-equilibrium Green function formalism to calculating the
local spin density within the hexagonal sample. Focusing on the out-of-plane
component of spin, we obtain the geometry-dependent spin-Hall accumulation
patterns, which are sensitive to not only the sample size, the spin-orbit
coupling strength, the bias strength, but also the lead configurations.
Contrary to the rectangular samples, the accumulation pattern can be very
different in our hexagonal samples. Our present work provides a fundamental
description of the geometry effect on the intrinsic spin-Hall effect, taking
the hexagon as the specific case. Moreover, broken spin-Hall symmetry due to
the coexistence of the Rashba and Dresselhaus couplings is also discussed. Upon
exchanging the two coupling strengths, the accumulation pattern is reversed,
confirming the earlier predicted sign change in spin-Hall conductivity.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Spin relaxation of conduction electrons in (110)-grown quantum wells
The theory of spin relaxation of conduction electrons is developed for
zinc-blende-type quantum wells grown on (110)-oriented substrate. It is shown
that, in asymmetric structures, the relaxation of electron spin initially
oriented along the growth direction is characterized by two different lifetimes
and leads to the appearance of an in-plane spin component. The magnitude and
sign of the in-plane component are determined by the structure inversion
asymmetry of the quantum well and can be tuned by the gate voltage. In an
external magnetic field, the interplay of cyclotron motion of carriers and the
Larmor precession of electron spin can result in a nonmonotonic dependence of
the spin density on the magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Theory of superfast fronts of impact ionization in semiconductor structures
We present an analytical theory for impact ionization fronts in reversely
biased p^{+}-n-n^{+} structures. The front propagates into a depleted n base
with a velocity that exceeds the saturated drift velocity. The front passage
generates a dense electron-hole plasma and in this way switches the structure
from low to high conductivity. For a planar front we determine the
concentration of the generated plasma, the maximum electric field, the front
width and the voltage over the n base as functions of front velocity and doping
of the n base. Theory takes into account that drift velocities and impact
ionization coefficients differ between electrons and holes, and it makes
quantitative predictions for any semiconductor material possible.Comment: 18 pagers, 10 figure
Spin blockade at semiconductor/ferromagnet junctions
We study theoretically extraction of spin-polarized electrons at nonmagnetic
semiconductor/ferromagnet junctions. The outflow of majority spin electrons
from the semiconductor into the ferromagnet leaves a cloud of minority spin
electrons in the semiconductor region near the junction, forming a local
spin-dipole configuration at the semiconductor/ferromagnet interface. This
minority spin cloud can limit the majority spin current through the junction
creating a pronounced spin-blockade at a critical current. We calculate the
critical spin-blockade current in both planar and cylindrical geometries and
discuss possible experimental tests of our predictions.Comment: to be published in PR
Dimensional Control of Antilocalisation and Spin Relaxation in Quantum Wires
The spin relaxation rate in disordered quantum wires with
Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling is derived analytically as a
function of wire width . It is found to be diminished when is smaller
than the bulk spin-orbit length . Only a small spin relaxation rate
due to cubic Dresselhaus coupling is found to remain in this limit. As
a result, when reducing the wire width the quantum conductivity correction
changes from weak anti- to weak localization and from negative to positive
magnetoconductivity.Comment: 4.0 pages, 3 figures, final version, Refs. updated, introduction and
formula for spin relaxation rate adde
Spin relaxation in semiconductor quantum dots
We have studied the physical processes responsible for the spin -flip in GaAs
quantum dots. We have calculated the rates for different mechanisms which are
related to spin-orbit coupling and cause a spin-flip during the inelastic
relaxation of the electron in the dot both with and without a magnetic field.
We have shown that the zero-dimensional character of the problem when electron
wave functions are localized in all directions leads to freezing out of the
most effective spin-flip mechanisms related to the absence of the inversion
centers in the elementary crystal cell and at the heterointerface and, as a
result, to unusually low spin-flip rates.Comment: 6 pages, RevTe
Spin relaxation dynamics of quasiclassical electrons in ballistic quantum dots with strong spin-orbit coupling
We performed path integral simulations of spin evolution controlled by the
Rashba spin-orbit interaction in the semiclassical regime for chaotic and
regular quantum dots. The spin polarization dynamics have been found to be
strikingly different from the D'yakonov-Perel' (DP) spin relaxation in bulk
systems. Also an important distinction have been found between long time spin
evolutions in classically chaotic and regular systems. In the former case the
spin polarization relaxes to zero within relaxation time much larger than the
DP relaxation, while in the latter case it evolves to a time independent
residual value. The quantum mechanical analysis of the spin evolution based on
the exact solution of the Schroedinger equation with Rashba SOI has confirmed
the results of the classical simulations for the circular dot, which is
expected to be valid in general regular systems. In contrast, the spin
relaxation down to zero in chaotic dots contradicts to what have to be expected
from quantum mechanics. This signals on importance at long time of the
mesoscopic echo effect missed in the semiclassical simulations.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Observation of Spin Relaxation Anisotropy in Semiconductor Quantum Wells
Spin relaxation of two-dimensional electrons in asymmetrical (001) AlGaAs
quantum wells are measured by means of Hanle effect. Three different spin
relaxation times for spins oriented along [110], [1-10] and [001]
crystallographic directions are extracted demonstrating anisotropy of
D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation mechanism. The relative strengths of Rashba
and Dresselhaus terms describing the spin-orbit coupling in semiconductor
quantum well structures. It is shown that the Rashba spin-orbit splitting is
about four times stronger than the Dresselhaus splitting in the studied
structure.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Theory of Electric Dipole Spin Resonance in a Parabolic Quantum Well
A theory of Electric Dipole Spin Resonance (EDSR), that is caused by various
mechanisms of spin-orbit coupling, is developed as applied to free electrons in
a parabolic quantum well. Choosing a parabolic shape of the well has allowed us
to find explicit expressions for the EDSR intensity and its dependence on the
magnetic field direction in terms of the basic parameters of the Hamiltonian.
By using these expressions, we have investigated and compared the effect of
specific mechanisms of spin orbit (SO) coupling and different polarizations of
ac electric field on the intensity of EDSR. Angular dependences of the EDSR
intensity are indicative of the relative contributions of the competing
mechanisms of SO coupling. Our results show that electrical manipulating
electron spins in quantum wells is generally highly efficient, especially by an
in-plane ac electric field.Comment: 45 pages 6 figur
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