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Applied Physics Letters

Room temperature electron spin relaxation in GaInNAs multiple quantum wells at 1.3μm

Charis Reith, Steven J. White, Michaël Mazilu, Alan Miller, Janne Konttinen, Mircea D. Guina, M. Pessa

Published Nov 20, 2006• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The authors report a direct measurement of electron spin relaxation in GaInNAs semiconductor multiple quantum wells at room temperature. Multiple quantum wells of widths 5.8, 7, and 8nm exhibiting excitonic absorption around 1.3μm have been studied. Spin relaxation times were found to increase with well width in the range of 77–133ps. The spin relaxation time dependence on first electron confinement energy suggests the Elliot-Yafet mechanism [A. Tackeuchi et al., Physica B 272, 318 (1999)] as the dominant relaxation process.

DOI
10.1063/1.2396901

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The authors report a direct measurement of electron spin relaxation in GaInNAs semiconductor multiple quantum wells at room temperature. Multiple quantum wells of widths 5.8, 7, and 8nm exhibiting excitonic absorption around 1.3μm have been studied. Spin relaxation times were found to increase with well width in the range of 77–133ps. The spin relaxation time dependence on first electron confinement energy suggests the Elliot-Yafet mechanism [A. Tackeuchi et al., Physica B 272, 318 (1999)] as the dominant relaxation process.
Time-resolved excite-probe measurements were performed on GaAs multiple quantum wells to determine the spin relaxation time as a function of well width (L) at room temperature, and as a function of temperature in the range of 10 to 150 K. These studies suggest that the room temperature spin relaxation time follows an exponential well width dependence, indicating that at room temperature spin flip is dominated by a combination of the D'Yakonov-Perel and the Bir-Aronov-Pikus mechanisms. The low temperature results suggest that a different mechanism, the exchange interaction, is dominant at low temperatures.
Time-resolved Kerr rotation spectroscopy is used to monitor the room temperature electron spin dynamics of optical telecommunication wavelength AlInGaAs multiple quantum wells lattice matched to InP. The authors found that electron spin coherence times and effective g factors vary as a function of aluminum concentration. The measured electron spin coherence times of these multiple quantum wells, with wavelengths ranging from 1.26to1.53μm, reach approximately 100ps at room temperature, and the measured electron effective g factors are in the range from −2.3to−1.1.
Electron-spin relaxation has been investigated in a variety of quantum confined structures including GaAs-based quantum wells and quantum wires as well as InP-based quantum wells, and it has been shown to exhibit ultrafast relaxation in the picosecond, and even in the femtosecond, range. This ultrafast relaxation has been used together with the exciton absorption nonlinearity as an novel principle of all-optical switching device which can avoid the speed limit due to the slow carrier lifetime in conventional switching devices. Experiments on GaAs-based quantum-well spin switches have shown 4-ps gate switch operation. Also, experimental analyses have shown the feasibility of these devices at a high contrast ratio (13 dB) and high repetition rate (40 GHz). The application of this device to a demultiplexer has been proposed.
The carrier spin dynamics in a nnn-doped (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum well has been studied by time-resolved Faraday rotation and ellipticity techniques in the temperature range down to 430 milliKelvin. These techniques give data with very different spectral dependencies, from which nonetheless consistent information on the spin dynamics can be obtained, in agreement with theoretical predictions. The mechanisms of long-lived spin coherence generation are discussed for the cases of trion and exciton resonant excitation. We demonstrate that carrier localization leads to a saturation of spin relaxation times at 45 ns for electrons below 4.5 K and at 2 ns for holes below 2.3 K. The underlying spin relaxation mechanisms are discussed.