Abstract
The dynamics of the optical orientated excitonic spins in semiconductor quantum wells has been investigated using opposite circular polarizations of the photoluminescence (PL) caused by the spin-dependent phase-space filling. The PL excitonic spin polarization estimated from the two different polarization conditions is found to strongly depend on the strength of the electric bias as well as on the size of the wells. With an increase of the electric bias field, the excitonic PL spin polarization increases, giving a maximum value of \(\sim \)90 % at the fields higher than \(\sim \)2.5 V. However, the PL spin polarization decreases with increasing the size of the well as well as increasing crystal temperature. The results as well as possible reasons responsible for the effects are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Avrutsky, I.A., Vosmishev, A.V.: Band-filling effect in QWs. Phys. Low-Dim. Struct. 10(11), 257–261 (1995)
Awschalom, D.D., Loss, D., Samarth, N. (eds.): Semiconductor Spintronics and Quantum Computation. Springer, Berlin (2002)
Dacal, L.C.O., Brum, J.A.: Binding energy of charged excitons in semiconductor quantum wells in the presence of longitudinal electric fields. Phys. Rev. B 65, 115324 (2002). doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.65.115324
Dash, S.P., Sharma, S., Patel, R.S., de Jong, M.P., Jansen, R.: Electrical creation of spin polarization in silicon at room temperature. Nature 462, 491–494 (2009)
Dyakonov, M.I., Khaetskii, A.V.: Spin hall effect. In: Dyakonov, M.I. (ed.) Spin Physics in Semiconductors. Springer, Berlin (2008)
Dzhioev, R.I., Korenev, V.L., Zakharchenya, B.P., Gammon, D., Bracker, A.S., Tischler, J.G., Katzer, D.S.: Optical orientation and the Hanle effect of neutral and negatively charged excitons in GaAs/AlxGa 1-x As quantum wells. Phys. Rev. B 66, 153409–153412 (2002)
Hallstein, S., Berger, J.D., Hilpert, M., Schneider, H.C., Ruhle, W.W., Jahnke, F., Koch, S.W., Gibbs, H.M., Khitrova, G., Oestreich, M.: Manifestation of coherent spin precession in stimulated semiconductor emission dynamics. Phys. Rev. B 56, R7076–R7080 (1997)
Heberle, A.P., Ruhle, W.W., Ploog, K.: Quantum beats of electron Larmor precession in GaAs wells. Phys. Lett. 72, 3887–3890 (1994)
Ilczuk, E., Korona, K.P., Babiński, A., Kuhl, J.: Dynamics of photoexcited carriers in GaInAs/GaAs quantum dots. Acta Phys. Pol. A 100, 379–386 (2001)
Kikkawa, J.M., Awschalom, D.D.: Resonant spin amplification in n-type GaAs. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 4313–4316 (1998)
Kityk, I.V.: Non-linear optical phenomena in the large-sized nanocrystallites. J. Non-Cryst. Solids 292, 184–201 (2001)
Lampel, G., Weisbuch, C.: Proposal for an efficient source of polarized photoelectrons from semiconductors. Solid State Commun. 16, 877–880 (1975)
Lou, X., Adelmann, C., Crooker, C.A., Garlid, E.S., Zhang, J., Reddy, K.S.M., Flexner, S.D.: Palmstrøm, C.J., Crowell, P.A.: Electrical detection of spin transport in lateral ferromagnet–semiconductor devices. Nat. Phys. 3, 197–202 (2007)
Miah, M.I.: Electrical detection of spin current and spin relaxation in nonmagnetic semiconductors. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 41, 185503 (2008a)
Miah, M.I.: Semiconductor spintronics and its requirements. J. Optoelectron. Adv. Mater. 10, 2487–2493 (2008b)
Miah, M.I.: Roles of the bias fields in the exchange interaction between the electron and hole spins in quantum wells. Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 182106 (2009)
Nabi, S.R.: Exchange. Bull. Mater. Sci. 23, 34–37 (2000)
Pikus, G.E., Titkov, A.N.: In: Meier, F., Zakharchenya, B.P. (eds.) Optical Orientation, Modern Problems in Condensed Matter Science, vol. 8. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1984)
Pikus, G.E., Titkov, A.N.: In: Optical Orientation. Modern Problems in Condensed Matter Science, Vol. 8. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1984)
Raymond, S., Studenikin, S., Sachrajda, A., Wasilewski, Z., Cheng, S.J., Sheng, W., Hawrylak, P., Babiński, A., Potemski, M., Ortner, G., Bayer, M.: Excitonic energy shell structure of self-assembled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 187402–187407 (2004)
van Kesteren, H.W., Cosman, E.C., van der Poel, W.A.J.A., Foxon, C.T.: Fine structure of excitons in type-II GaAs/AlAs quantum wells. Phys. Rev. B 41, 5283–5287 (1990)
Varshni, Y.: Temperature dependence of the energy gap in semiconductors. Physica 34, 149–154 (1967)
Wang, T., Li, A., Tan, Z.: In: Proceedings of the SPIE vol. 6838, p. 683814–683817 (2007)
Wolf, S.A., Awschalom, D.D., Buhrman, R.A., Daughton, J.M., von Molnár, S., Roukes, M.L., Chtchelkanova, A.Y., Treger, D.M.: Spintronics: a spin-based electronics vision for the future. Science 294, 1488–1495 (2001)
Ziese, M., Thornton, M.J. (eds.): Spin Electronics, vol. 569. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Miah, M.I., Naheed, L. Photo-induced excitonic spin dynamics in GaAs. Opt Quant Electron 47, 1239–1244 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-014-9981-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-014-9981-4