Physics Letters A 382 (2018) 1181–1184
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Physics Letters A
www.elsevier.com/locate/pla
Spin-polarization dependent carrier recombination dynamics and spin
relaxation mechanism in asymmetrically doped (110) n-GaAs quantum
wells
Lihua Teng
a
, Tianran Jiang
b
, Xia Wang
a
, Tianshu Lai
b,∗
a
Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies Engineering Laboratory of Shandong, Department of Physics, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao,
266061, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Physics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received
10 January 2018
Received
in revised form 11 February 2018
Accepted
27 February 2018
Available
online 7 March 2018
Communicated
by M. Wu
Keywords:
(110)
GaAs quantum wells
Carrier
recombination
Spin
relaxation
Spin-polarization
dependent
Carrier recombination and electron spin relaxation dynamics in asymmetric n-doped (110) GaAs/AlGaAs
quantum wells are investigated with time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy. The experiment results
reveal that the measured carrier recombination time depends strongly on the polarization of pump pulse.
With the same pump photon flux densities, the recombination time of spin-polarized carriers is always
longer than that of the spin-balanced carriers except at low pump photon flux densities, this anomaly
originates from the polarization-sensitive nonlinear absorption effect. Differing from the traditional views,
in the low carrier density regime, the D’yakonov–Perel’ (DP) mechanism can be more important than the
Bir–Aronov–Pikus (BAP) mechanism, since the DP mechanism takes effect, the spin relaxation time in
(110) GaAs QWs is shortened obviously via asymmetric doping.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Spin dynamics and the related physics in semiconductors have
received considerable attention because of its potential applica-
tions
in novel spin-electronic devices [1–3]. Especially in recent 20
years, spin dynamics have been investigated intensively in III–V
semiconductors
to explore the mechanism of spin relaxation [2,
4],
among which the GaAs quantum wells (QWs) has become one
of the most interesting materials. It is well-known that the Bir–
Aronov–Pikus
(BAP) mechanism of spin relaxation is important
only at low temperature or in heavily p-doped QWs, while the spin
relaxation in intrinsic and n-type QWs is mainly dominated by the
D’yakonov–Perel’ (DP) mechanism resulting from the Rashba and
Dreselhaus spin-orbit (SO) coupling [4]. However, one of the salient
features of DP mechanism is that it varies significantly with the
structure and growth direction [2,5,6]. In (110) GaAs QWs, it is
usually thought that the average Rashba SO coupling is zero [5].
Meanwhile, the effective magnetic field induced by the Dreselhaus
SO coupling is along the (110) direction, so that spin relaxation
of spin polarization normal to the QWs planes is absent, and the
DP mechanism is substantially suppressed along the (110) direc-
tion
[5]. Consequently, the spin relaxation is only dominated by
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail
address: stslts @mail .sysu .edu .cn (T. Lai).
electron-hole exchange interaction, namely BAP mechanism [5,7].
Therefore, the spin relaxation time is much longer than one in
the (001) GaAs QWs [7–11]. Ohno et al. found a longer spin re-
laxation
time of nanosecond order in n-type (110) GaAs QWs at
temperatures higher than 100 K [7], while Adachi and Völkl et al.
found that this time even could exceeds 10 ns respectively at low
and room temperatures [8,11]. However, above mentioned longer
spin lifetimes were measured on (110) GaAs QWs with symmet-
rical
profiles of band structures. In asymmetric (110) GaAs QWs,
Olbrich et al. found the spin relaxation time can be clearly pro-
longed
by increasing carrier density at a nominal temperature of
4K, which is one of important features of DP mechanism, and thus
proposed that the DP mechanism might play an important role
for asymmetric (110) GaAs QWs at low temperature [12]. Addi-
tionally,
a recent experiment showed that the modulation-doped
symmetry had strong effect on the Rashba SO coupling, and DP
mechanism was stronger in asymmetrically than in symmetrically
designed (100) GaAs QWs [ 2]. Then, at room temperature, the
asymmetric band profile may have effect on the mechanism of spin
relaxation, DP mechanism may play an important role in asymmet-
rically
doped (110) GaAs QWs. It is necessary further to study the
effect of modulation-doped symmetry on Rashba SO coupling, and
to reveal the spin relaxation mechanism in asymmetrically doped
(110) GaAs QWs.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physleta.2018.02.035
0375-9601/
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.