Drift and diffusion dynamics of optically spin-polarized electrons in GaAs quantum wires

We investigated drift and diffusion dynamics of optically spin-polarized electrons in rectangular p-doped GaAs/AlAs quantum wires (QWRs) with small (10 nm) lateral sizes by time resolved and spatially resolved photoluminescence measurement. It is revealed that the drifting electrons tend to maintain the spin polarization beyond View the MathML source, while the diffusion process causes the spatially-uniform spin relaxation with a spin relaxation time of about 300 ps.