Non-diffusive spin dynamics in a two-dimensional electron gas

Abstract

We describe measurements of spin dynamics in the two-dimensional electron gas in GaAs/GaAlAs quantum wells. Optical techniques, including transient spin-grating spectroscopy, are used to probe the relaxation rates of spin polarization waves in the wavevector range from zero to $6\times 10^4$ cm${}^{-1}$. We find that the spin polarization lifetime is maximal at nonzero wavevector, in contrast with expectation based on ordinary spin diffusion, but in quantitative agreement with recent theories that treat diffusion in the presence of spin-orbit coupling.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Dissipationless Quantum Spin Current at Room Temperature
• An Exact SU(2) Symmetry and Persistent Spin Helix in a Spin-Orbit Coupled System
• Current induced electron spin polarization in strained semiconductors

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Emergence of the persistent spin helix in semiconductor quantum wells
• Electrical generation of pure spin currents in a two-dimensional electron gas
• Ambipolar spin diffusion and D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation in GaAs quantum wells
• Spin-orbit mediated anisotropic spin interaction in interacting electron systems
• Spin relaxation in $n$-type GaAs quantum wells with transient spin grating
• Spin polarization in biased Rashba-Dresselhaus two-dimensional electron systems
• Magnetic breakdown of cyclotron orbits in systems with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling
• Spontaneous Emergence of Persistent Spin Helix from Homogeneous Spin Polarization
• Diffusive-Ballistic Crossover and the Persistent Spin Helix
• Conservation and persistence of spin currents and their relation to the Lieb-Schulz-Mattis twist operators
• Spin accumulation from the non-Abelian Aharonov-Bohm effect
• Infinite spin diffusion length of any spin polarization along direction perpendicular to effective magnetic field from Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit couplings with identical strengths in (001) GaAs quantum wells
• Excitation of spin waves on a cylindrical semiconductor heterostructure with Rashba spin-orbit interaction
• Crossover from diffusive to non-diffusive dynamics in the two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling