Gated spin relaxation in (1 1 0)-oriented quantum wells
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Henini, M.; Karimov, O.Z.; John, G.H.; Harley, R.T.; Airey, R.J.
- Source
- Physica E. Jul2004, Vol. 23 Issue 3/4, p309-314. 6p.
- Subject
- *QUANTUM wells
*PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
*ELECTRIC fields
*FREE electron theory of metals
- Language
- ISSN
- 1386-9477
Growth, photoluminescence characterisation and time-resolved optical measurements of electron spin dynamics in (1 1 0)-oriented GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells are described. Conditions are given for MBE growth of good-quality quantum wells, judged by the width of low-temperature excitonic photoluminescence. At 170 K the electron spin relaxation rate in (1 1 0)-oriented wells shows a 100-fold reduction compared to equivalent (1 0 0)-oriented wells and also a 10-fold increase with applied electric field from 20 to 80 kV cm-1. There is evidence for similar dramatic effects at 300 K. Spin relaxation is field independent below 20 kV cm-1 reflecting quantum well asymmetry. The results indicate the achievability of voltage-gateable quantum well spin memory time longer than 10 ns at room temperature simultaneously with high electron mobility. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]