Spin relaxation in InSb and InAs by 1- and 2-colour spectroscopy with free electron and solid state lasers

Author

Pidgeon, C.R. ; Murzyn, P. ; Phillips, P.J. ; Murdin, B.N. ; Litvinenko, K. ; Merrick, M. ; Cohen, L.F. ; Zhang, T. ; Clowes, S.K. ; Buckle, P. ; Ashley, T.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Heriot-Watt Univ., Edinburgh, UK

fYear

2004

fDate

27 Sept.-1 Oct. 2004

Firstpage

207

Lastpage

208

Abstract

We report time-resolved measurement of spin lifetimes in both bulk and quantum well narrow gap semiconductors (NGSs) at 300K. We have used both free electron and solid state laser sources from 3 to 7 μm and quarter wave plates to produce circularly polarised pump and probe beams. We previously demonstrated that spin flip (Elliott-Yafet, EY) scattering dominates in Hg_0.78Cd_0.22Te due to strong lattice scattering. In contrast, spin unphasing (D´Yakonov-Perel, DP) scattering controls the loss of polarisation in intrinsic InSb and InAs due to the higher mobility, giving spin lifetimes, τ_s, of ∼20 ps at 300 K. We report first measurements of τ_s of ∼17 ps in InSb/InAlSb quantum wells.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; carrier lifetime; carrier mobility; indium compounds; narrow band gap semiconductors; semiconductor quantum wells; spin polarised transport; spin-orbit interactions; time resolved spectra; 17 ps; 20 ps; 3 to 7 micron; 300 K; InSb-InAlSb; InSb-InAlSb quantum wells; carrier mobility; circular polarised pump; colour spectroscopy; free electron laser sources; lattice scattering; polarisation loss; probe beams; quantum well narrow gap semiconductors; quarter wave plates; solid state laser sources; spin flip scattering; spin lifetimes; spin relaxation; spin unphasing scattering; time resolved measurement; Electron beams; Laser beams; Laser excitation; Mercury (metals); Optical retarders; Particle scattering; Polarization; Probes; Solid lasers; Spectroscopy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Infrared and Millimeter Waves, 2004 and 12th International Conference on Terahertz Electronics, 2004. Conference Digest of the 2004 Joint 29th International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8490-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICIMW.2004.1422027

Filename

1422027