Anisotropic expansion of drifting spin helices in GaAs quantum wells

The drift of electron spin helices in an external in-plane electric field in GaAs quantum wells is studied by means of time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr microscopy. The evolution of the spin distribution measured for different excitation powers reveals that, for short delay times and higher excitat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2021-01, Vol.103 (3), p.035429, Article 035429
Main Authors: Anghel, S., Poshakinskiy, A. V., Schiller, K., Passmann, F., Ruppert, C., Tarasenko, S. A., Yusa, G., Mano, T., Noda, T., Betz, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Delay time
Drift
Electric fields
Electron gas
Electron spin
Excitation
Helices
Kinetic theory
Quantum wells
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Summary:The drift of electron spin helices in an external in-plane electric field in GaAs quantum wells is studied by means of time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr microscopy. The evolution of the spin distribution measured for different excitation powers reveals that, for short delay times and higher excitation powers, the spin helix drift slows down while its envelope becomes anisotropic. The effect is understood as a local decrease of the electron gas mobility due to electron collisions with nonequilibrium holes within the excitation spot and is reproduced well in the kinetic theory framework. For larger delay times, when the electrons constituting the spin helix and nonequilibrium holes are separated by an electric field, the spin helix drift accelerates and the mobility reaches its unperturbed value again.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.103.035429