Imprinting spatial helicity structure of vector vortex beam on spin texture in semiconductors

Abstract

We present the transfer of the spatially variant polarization of topologically structured light to the spatial spin texture in a semiconductor quantum well. The electron spin texture, which is a circular pattern with repeating spin-up and spin-down states whose repetition rate is determined by the topological charge, is directly excited by a vector vortex beam with a spatial helicity structure. The generated spin texture efficiently evolves into a helical spin wave pattern owing to the spin-orbit effective magnetic fields in the persistent spin helix state by controlling the spatial wave number of the excited spin mode. By tuning the repetition length and azimuthal angle, we simultaneously generate helical spin waves with opposite phases by a single beam.

6 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (6)

• 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
• Direct mapping of the formation of a persistent spin helix: Supplementary information
• Coherent transfer of light polarization to electron spins in a semiconductor
• Non-diffusive spin dynamics in a two-dimensional electron gas
• Suppressed decay of a laterally confined persistent spin helix

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Light-induced torque in ferromagnetic metals via orbital angular momentum generated by photon-helicity
• Direct imprinting of arbitrary spin textures using programmable structured light in a semiconductor two-dimensional electron gas
• Imprinting spiral Higgs waves onto superconductors with vortex beams
• Nanoscale engineering and dynamical stabilization of mesoscopic spin textures
• Optical-vortex-pulse induced nonequilibrium spin textures in spin-orbit coupled electrons
• Photo-induced Non-collinear Interlayer RKKY Coupling in Bulk Rashba Semiconductors