Control of Spin Relaxation Anisotropy by Spin-Orbit-Coupled Diffusive Spin Motion

Abstract

Spatiotemporal spin dynamics under spin-orbit interaction is investigated in a (001) GaAs two-dimensional electron gas using magneto-optical Kerr rotation microscopy. Spin polarized electrons are diffused away from the excited position, resulting in spin precession because of the diffusion-induced spin-orbit field. Near the cancellation between spin-orbit field and external magnetic field, the induced spin precession frequency depends nonlinearly on the diffusion velocity, which is unexpected from the conventional linear relation between the spin-orbit field and the electron velocity.This behavior originates from an enhancement of the spin relaxation anisotropy by the electron velocity perpendicular to the diffused direction. We demonstrate that the spin relaxation anisotropy, which has been regarded as a material constant, can be controlled via diffusive electron motion.

5 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (7)

• First direct observation of Spin-textures in Topological Insulators : Spin-resolved ARPES as a probe of topological quantum spin Hall effect and Berry's phase
• Measurement of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit magnetic fields
• Role of linear and cubic terms for the drift-induced Dresselhaus spin-orbit splitting in a two-dimensional electron gas
• Ambipolar spin diffusion and D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation in GaAs quantum wells
• Detection of large magneto-anisotropy of electron spin dephasing in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system in a $[001]$ GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well
• Anisotropic Electron Spin Lifetime in (In,Ga)As/GaAs (110) Quantum Wells
• Characterization of spin-orbit fields in InGaAs quantum wells

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Magnetoconductance Anisotropies and Aharonov-Casher Phases
• Spin drift-diffusion for two-subband quantum wells