49 research outputs found
Fast optical control of spin in semiconductor interfacial structures
We report on a picosecond-fast optical removal of spin polarization from a
self-confined photo-carrier system at an undoped GaAs/AlGaAs interface
possessing superior long-range and high-speed spin transport properties. We
employed a modified resonant spin amplification technique with unequal
intensities of subsequent pump pulses to experimentally distinguish the
evolution of spin populations originating from different excitation laser
pulses. We demonstrate that the density of spins, which is injected into the
system by means of the optical orientation, can be controlled by reducing the
electrostatic confinement of the system using an additional generation of
photocarriers. It is also shown that the disturbed confinement recovers within
hundreds of picoseconds after which spins can be again photo-injected into the
system
Voigt effect-based wide-field magneto-optical microscope integrated in a pump-probe experimental setup
In this work, we describe an experimental setup for a spatially resolved pump-probe experiment with an integrated wide-field magneto-optical (MO) microscope. The MO microscope can be used to study ferromagnetic materials with both perpendicular-to-plane and in-plane magnetic anisotropy via polar Kerr and Voigt effects, respectively. The functionality of the Voigt effect-based microscope was tested using an in-plane magnetized ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. It was revealed that the presence of mechanical defects in the (Ga,Mn)As epilayer alters significantly the magnetic anisotropy in their proximity. The importance of MO experiments with simultaneous temporal and spatial resolutions was demonstrated using a (Ga,Mn)As sample attached to a piezoelectric transducer, which produces a voltage-controlled strain. We observed a considerably different behavior in different parts of the sample that enabled us to identify sample parts where the epilayer magnetic anisotropy was significantly modified by the presence of the piezoelectric transducer and where it was not. Finally, we discuss the possible applicability of our experimental setup for the research of compensated antiferromagnets, where only MO effects even in magnetic moments are present
Semiconductor Bloch equation analysis of optical Stark and Bloch-Siegert shifts in monolayers WSe and MoS
We report on the theoretical and experimental investigation of
valley-selective optical Stark and Bloch-Siegert shifts of exciton resonances
in monolayers WSe and MoS induced by strong circularly polarized
nonresonant optical fields. We predict and observe transient shifts of both 1sA
and 1sB exciton transitions in the linear interaction regime. The theoretical
description is based on semiconductor Bloch equations. The solutions of the
equations are obtained with a modified perturbation technique, which takes into
account many-body Coulomb interaction effects. These solutions allow to explain
the polarization dependence of the shifts and calculate their values
analytically. We found experimentally the limits of the applicability of the
theoretical description by observing the transient exciton spectra change due
to many-body effects at high field amplitudes of the driving wave.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, this manuscript is related to the "Giant
valley-selective Stark and Bloch-Siegert shifts of exciton resonances in
WSe and MoS monolayers" manuscrip
Giant valley-selective Stark and Bloch-Siegert shifts of exciton resonances in WSe and MoS monolayers
In this letter we demonstrate that the valley degeneracy of exciton states in
monolayers of WSe and MoS can be lifted by the interaction with strong
circularly-polarized infrared pulses with durations of only few periods of the
electric field whose photon energy is much lower than the energy of the
excitonic transition. The observed valley-sensitive blue shifts of excitonic
absorption lines are consequences of optical Stark and Bloch-Siegert shifts
acting exclusively on the opposite valleys of the monolayer. We measured the
transient valley-selective changes of sample reflectivity for 1sA as well as
for 1sB exciton transitions corresponding to the two most intensive resonances
in the studied materials. For the studied phenomena we developed a theoretical
description based on semiconductor Bloch equations, which goes beyond the
simple two-level model used in previous investigations. The theoretical
approach takes into account Coulomb many-body effects in the monolayer and
provides a unified description of both types of shifts. The detected
room-temperature excitonic energy shifts of up to 30\,meV pave the way for
practical applications of these effects.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, the manuscript is related to the "Semiconductor
Bloch equation analysis of optical Stark and Bloch-Siegert shifts in
monolayers WSe and MoS" manuscrip
Direct measurement of the three dimensional magnetization vector trajectory in GaMnAs by a magneto-optical pump-and-probe method
We report on a quantitative experimental determination of the
three-dimensional magnetization vector trajectory in GaMnAs by means of the
static and time-resolved pump-and-probe magneto-optical measurements. The
experiments are performed in a normal incidence geometry and the time evolution
of the magnetization vector is obtained without any numerical modeling of
magnetization dynamics. Our experimental method utilizes different polarization
dependences of the polar Kerr effect and magnetic linear dichroism to
disentangle the pump-induced out-of-plane and in-plane motions of
magnetization, respectively. We demonstrate that the method is sensitive enough
to allow for the determination of small angle excitations of the magnetization
in GaMnAs. The method is readily applicable to other magnetic materials with
sufficiently strong circular and linear magneto-optical effects.Comment: main paper: 7 pages, 3 figures; supplementary information: 11 pages,
6 figure
Enhancement of the spin Hall voltage in a reverse-biased planar p-n junction
We report an experimental demonstration of a local amplification of the spin Hall voltage using an expanding depletion zone at a p-n junction in GaAs/AlGaAs Hall-bar microdevices. It is demonstrated that the depletion zone can be spatially expanded by applying reverse bias by at least 10 μm at low temperature. In the depleted regime, the spin Hall signals reached more than one order of magnitude higher values than in the normal regime at the same electrical current flowing through the microdevice. It is shown that the p-n bias has two distinct effects on the detected spin Hall signal. It controls the local drift field at the Hall cross which is highly nonlinear in the p-n bias due to the shift of the depletion front. Simultaneously, it produces a change in the spin-transport parameters due to the nonlinear change in the carrier density at the Hall cross with the p-n bias
Comparison of micromagnetic parameters of the ferromagnetic semiconductors (Ga,Mn)(As,P) and (Ga,Mn)As
We report on the determination of micromagnetic parameters of epilayers of the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As, which has an easy axis in the sample plane, and (Ga,Mn)(As,P), which has an easy axis perpendicular to the sample plane.We use an optical analog of ferromagnetic resonancewhere the laser-pulse-induced precession of magnetization is measured directly in the time domain. By the analysis of a single set of pump-and-probe magneto-optical data, we determined the magnetic anisotropy fields, the spin stiffness, and the Gilbert damping constant in these two materials. We show that incorporation of 10% of phosphorus in (Ga,Mn)As with 6% of manganese leads not only to the expected sign change of the perpendicular-to-plane anisotropy field but also to an increase of the Gilbert damping and to a reduction of the spin stiffness. The observed changes in the micromagnetic parameters upon incorporating P in (Ga,Mn)As are consistent with the reduced hole density, conductivity, and Curie temperature of the (Ga,Mn)(As,P) material.We also show that the apparent magnetization precession damping is stronger for the n=1 spinwave resonance mode than for the n=0 uniform magnetization precession mode
Experimental observation of the optical spin transfer torque
The spin transfer torque is a phenomenon in which angular momentum of a spin
polarized electrical current entering a ferromagnet is transferred to the
magnetization. The effect has opened a new research field of electrically
driven magnetization dynamics in magnetic nanostructures and plays an important
role in the development of a new generation of memory devices and tunable
oscillators. Optical excitations of magnetic systems by laser pulses have been
a separate research field whose aim is to explore magnetization dynamics at
short time scales and enable ultrafast spintronic devices. We report the
experimental observation of the optical spin transfer torque, predicted
theoretically several years ago building the bridge between these two fields of
spintronics research. In a pump-and-probe optical experiment we measure
coherent spin precession in a (Ga,Mn)As ferromagnetic semiconductor excited by
circularly polarized laser pulses. During the pump pulse, the spin angular
momentum of photo-carriers generated by the absorbed light is transferred to
the collective magnetization of the ferromagnet. We interpret the observed
optical spin transfer torque and the magnetization precession it triggers on a
quantitative microscopic level. Bringing the spin transfer physics into optics
introduces a fundamentally distinct mechanism from the previously reported
thermal and non-thermal laser excitations of magnets. Bringing optics into the
field of spin transfer torques decreases by several orders of magnitude the
timescales at which these phenomena are explored and utilized.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure