Spin-dependent phenomena in semiconductors in strong electric fields

Abstract

We develop a theory of spin-dependent phenomena in the streaming regime characterized by ballistic acceleration of electrons in the moderate electric field until they achieve the optical phonon energy and abruptly emit the phonons. It is shown that the Dyakonov-Perel spin relaxation is drastically modified in this regime, the current-induced spin orientation remarkably increases, reaches a high value ~2% in the electric field ~1kV/cm and falls with the further increase in the field. The spin polarization enhancement is caused by squeezing of the electron momentum distribution in the direction of drift. We also predict field-induced oscillatory dynamics of spin polarization of the photocarriers excited into the conduction band by a short circularly-polarized optical pulse.

15 pages, 3 figures, submitted to the focus issue of New J. Phys. on "The Rashba effect"

References in corpus (2)

• Current induced electron spin polarization in strained semiconductors
• Quantum nanostructures in strongly spin-orbit coupled two-dimensional systems

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Theory of current-induced spin polarizations in an electron gas
• Spin fluctuations of non-equilibrium electrons and excitons in semiconductors
• Current-induced spin orientation in semiconductors and low-dimensional structures
• Kondo enhancement of current induced spin accumulation in a quantum dot
• Spin dynamics and fluctuations in the streaming regime