Spin current injection by intersubband transitions in quantum wells

We show that a pure spin current can be injected in quantum wells by the absorption of linearly polarized infrared radiation, leading to transitions between subbands. The magnitude and the direction of the spin current depend on the Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit coupling constants and light frequency and, therefore, can be manipulated by changing the light frequency and/or applying an external bias across the quantum well. The injected spin current should be observable either as a voltage generated via the anomalous spin-Hall effect, or by spatially resolved pump-probe optical spectroscopy.Comment: minor changes, short version publishe

Spin dephasing and pumping in graphene due to random spin-orbit interaction

We consider spin effects related to the random spin-orbit interaction in graphene. Such a random interaction can result from the presence of ripples and/or other inhomogeneities at the graphene surface. We show that the random spin-orbit interaction generally reduces the spin dephasing (relaxation) time, even if the interaction vanishes on average. Moreover, the random spin-orbit coupling also allows for spin manipulation with an external electric field. Due to the spin-flip interband as well as intraband optical transitions, the spin density can be effectively generated by periodic electric field in a relatively broad range of frequencies.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Spin relaxation and combined resonance in two-dimensional electron systems with spin-orbit disorder

Disorder in spin-orbit (SO) coupling is an important feature of real low-dimensional electron structures. We study spin relaxation due to such a disorder as well as resulting abilities of spin manipulation. The spin relaxation reveals quantum effects when the spatial scale of the randomness is smaller than the electron wavelength. Due to the disorder in SO coupling, a time-dependent external electric field generates a spatially random spin-dependent perturbation. The resulting electric dipole spin resonance in a two-dimensional electron gas leads to spin injection in a frequency range of the order of the Fermi energy. These effects can be important for possible applications in spintronics.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Physical Limits of the ballistic and non-ballistic Spin-Field-Effect Transistor: Spin Dynamics in Remote Doped Structures

We investigate the spin dynamics and relaxation in remotely-doped two dimensional electron systems where the dopants lead to random fluctuations of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Due to the resulting random spin precession, the spin relaxation time is limited by the strength and spatial scale of the random contribution to the spin-orbit coupling. We concentrate on the role of the randomness for two systems where the direction of the spin-orbit field does not depend on the electron momentum: the spin field-effect transistor with balanced Rashba and Dresselhaus couplings and the (011) quantum well. Both of these systems are considered as promising for the spintronics applications because of the suppression of the Dyakonov-Perel' mechanism there makes the realization of a spin field effect transistor in the diffusive regime possible. We demonstrate that the spin relaxation through the randomness of spin-orbit coupling imposes important physical limitations on the operational properties of these devices.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Coherent spin dynamics in quantum wells in quantizing magnetic field

We investigate theoretically the coherent longitudinal and transversal spin relaxation of photoexcited electrons in quantum wells in quantized magnetic fields. We find the relaxation time for typical quantum well parameters between 100 and 1000 ps. For a realistic random potential the relaxation process depends on the electron energy and g-factor, demonstrating oscillations in the spin polarization accompanying the spin relaxation. The dependence of spin relaxation on applied field, and thus on the corresponding "magnetic" length, can be used to characterize the spatial scale of disorder in quantum wells.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Quasiparticle states of the Hubbard model near the Fermi level

The spectra of the t-U and t-t'-U Hubbard models are investigated in the one-loop approximation for different values of the electron filling. It is shown that the four-band structure which is inherent in the case of half-filling and low temperatures persists also for some excess or deficiency of electrons. Besides, with some departure from half-filling an additional narrow band of quasiparticle states arises near the Fermi level. The dispersion of the band, its bandwidth and the variation with filling are close to those of the spin-polaron band of the t-J model. For moderate doping spectral intensities in the new band and in one of the inner bands of the four-band structure decrease as the Fermi level is approached which leads to the appearance of a pseudogap in the spectrum.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

The effects of disorder in dimerized quantum magnets in mean field approximations

We study theoretically the effects of disorder on Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of bosonic triplon quasiparticles in doped dimerized quantum magnets. The condensation occurs in a strong enough magnetic field Hc, where the concentration of bosons in the random potential is sufficient to form the condensate. The effect of doping is partly modeled by delta - correlated disorder potential, which (i) leads to the uniform renormalization of the system parameters and (ii) produces disorder in the system with renormalized parameters. These approaches can explain qualitatively the available magnetization data in the Tl_(1-x)K_(x)CuCl_3 compound taken as an example. In addition to the magnetization, we found that the speed of the Bogoliubov mode has a peak as a function of doping parameter, x. No evidence of the pure Bose glass phase has been obtained in the BEC regime.Comment: Includes 19 pages, 5 figure

Solar radiation on Mars: Stationary photovoltaic array

Solar energy is likely to be an important power source for surface-based operation on Mars. Photovoltaic cells offer many advantages. In this article we have presented analytical expressions and solar radiation data for stationary flat surfaces (horizontal and inclined) as a function of latitude, season and atmospheric dust load (optical depth). The diffuse component of the solar radiation on Mars can be significant, thus greatly affecting the optimal inclination angle of the photovoltaic surface

Robust to impurity-scattering spin Hall effect in two-dimensional electron gas

We propose a mechanism of spin Hall effect in two-dimensional electron gas with spatially random Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The calculations based on the Kubo formalism and kinetic equation show that in contrast to the constant spin-orbit coupling, spin Hall conductivity in the random spin-orbit field is not totally suppressed by the potential impurity scattering. Even if the regular contribution is removed by the vertex corrections, the terms we consider, remain. Therefore, the intrinsic spin-Hall effect exists being, however, non-universal.Comment: 4+ pages, 2 figure