Random walk approach to spin dynamics in a two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

We introduce and solve a semi-classical random walk (RW) model that describes the dynamics of spin polarization waves in zinc-blende semiconductor quantum wells. We derive the dispersion relations for these waves, including the Rashba, linear and cubic Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions, as well as the effects of an electric field applied parallel to the spin polarization wavevector. In agreement with fully quantum mechanical calculations [Kleinert and Bryksin, Phys. Rev. B \textbf{76}, 205326 (2007)], the RW approach predicts that spin waves acquire a phase velocity in the presence of the field that crosses zero at a nonzero wavevector, $q_0$. In addition, we show that the spin-wave decay rate is independent of field at $q_0$ but increases as $(q-q_0{)}^2$ for $q\ne q_0$. These predictions can be tested experimentally by suitable transient spin grating experiments.

References in corpus (12)

• Non-ballistic spin field-effect transistor
• An Exact SU(2) Symmetry and Persistent Spin Helix in a Spin-Orbit Coupled System
• Emergence of the persistent spin helix in semiconductor quantum wells
• Spin dynamics in semiconductors
• Spin current and polarization in impure 2D electron systems with spin-orbit coupling
• Theory of Spin-Charge Coupled Transport in a Two-Dimensional Electron Gas with Rashba Spin-Orbit Interactions
• Spin relaxation in a generic two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled system
• Non-exponential spin relaxation in magnetic field in quantum wells with random spin-orbit coupling
• Datta-Das type spin-field effect transistor in non-ballistic regime
• Spin relaxation and combined resonance in two-dimensional electron systems with spin-orbit disorder
• Electric-field induced spin excitations in two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled systems
• Spin polarization in biased Rashba-Dresselhaus two-dimensional electron systems

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Spin-orbit coupling as a source of long-range triplet proximity effect in superconductor-ferromagnet hybrid structures
• Persistent Spin Textures in Semiconductor Nanostructures
• Dynamics of a localized spin excitation close to the spin-helix regime
• Current-controlled Spin Precession of Quasi-Stationary Electrons in a Cubic Spin-Orbit Field
• Relaxation mechanisms of the persistent spin helix
• Spin dynamics in the strong spin-orbit coupling regime
• Macroscopic transverse drift of long current-induced spin coherence in two-dimensional electron gases
• Gate control of the spin mobility through the modification of the spin-orbit interaction in two-dimensional systems
• Ambipolar spin transport in (111) GaAs quantum wells