Dynamic Nuclear Polarization by Electrical Spin Injection
Abstract
The hyperfine coupling between electrons and nuclei in GaAs can give rise to dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) and plays an important role in many proposed spintronic devices. We have demonstrated that DNP can be driven by a spin-polarized current injected from Fe into a GaAs quantum well (QW). The samples are Schottky spin-LEDs in which a Fe contact is a source of spin-polarized electrons and a QW serves as a spin detector. Measurements are performed in a low magnetic field (<1 kOe) applied in the plane of the QW. In this geometry the QW electroluminescence polarization (ELP) is sensitive only to the component of the spin that precesses out of the QW plane after injection into the GaAs. We find that the precession frequency depends on both the applied field and a hyperfine field (B_N) due to polarized nuclei. The data are described by modeling the electron spin dynamics while incorporating the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of the Fe contact, spin relaxation in the QW, and an effective BN up to ∼1 T [1]. BN increases with increasing current density before saturating at current densities ∼10 A/cm^2. The DNP decreases with increasing temperature and is not detected above 80 K. Explicit signatures of DNP are observed via the time dependence of the ELP and resonant depolarization of nuclei by a time-dependent magnetic field (H_1) [2]. BN builds up exponentially with characteristic times of 20-45 seconds and persists for several minutes after the spin-polarized current is turned off. This approach to spin injection realizes the possibility of using DC electrical currents to inject and manipulate spin-polarized carriers in a semiconductor device. [1] J. Strand, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 036602 (2003); [2] Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 3335 (2003).
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004APS..MARY26003S