Lateral drag of spin coherence in gallium arsenide (original) (raw)

Nature volume 397, pages 139–141 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

The importance of spin-transport phenomena in condensed-matter physics has increased over the past decade with the advent of metallic giant-magnetoresistive systems and spin-valve transistors1. An extension of such phenomena to semiconductors should create possibilities for seamless integration of ‘spin electronics’ with existing solid-state devices, and may someday enable quantum computing schemes using electronic spins as non-local mediators of coherent nuclear spin interactions2. But to realize such goals, spin transport must be effected without destroying the relevant spin information. Here we report time-resolved optical studies of non-local Faraday rotation in n-type bulk gallium arsenide, which show macroscopic lateral transport of coherently precessing electronic spins over distances exceeding 100 micrometres. The ability to drag these spin packets by their negative charge, without a substantial increase in spin decoherence, is a consequence of the rather weak entanglement of spin coherence with orbital motion in this system3.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 51 print issues and online access

$199.00 per year

only $3.90 per issue

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Additional access options:

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Prinz, G. Spin-polarized transport. Phys. Today 48, 58–63 (1995).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  2. Kane, B. E. Asilicon based nuclear spin quantum computer. Nature 393, 133–137 (1998).
    Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
  3. Kikkawa, J. M. & Awschalom, D. D. Resonant spin amplification in GaAs. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 4313–4316 (1998).
    Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
  4. Kikkawa, J. M., Smorchkova, I. P., Samarth, N. & Awschalom, D. D. Room-temperature spin memory in two-dimensional electron gases. Science 277, 1284–1287 (1997).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  5. Worsley, R. E., Traynor, N. J., Grevatt, T. & Harley, R. T. Transient linear birefringence in GaAs quantum wells. Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 3224–3227 (1996).
    Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
  6. Oestreich, M. et al. Temperature and density dependence of the electron Landé g-factor in semiconductors. Phys. Rev. B 53, 7911–7916 (1996).
    Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
  7. Niedernostheide, F.-J., Hirschinger, J., Prettl, W., Novak, V. & Kostial, H. Oscillations of current filaments in n-GaAs caused by a magnetic field. Phys. Rev. B 58, 4454–4458 (1998).
    Article ADS CAS Google Scholar
  8. Kalevich, V. K. & Korenov, V. L. Effect of electric field on the optical orientation of 2D electrons. Pis'ma Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 52, 230–235 (1990) [JETP Lett. 52, 230–235 (1990)].
    Google Scholar

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank S. J. Allen for discussions and acknowledge support from the ARO and NSF QUEST STC.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106, California, USA
    J. M. Kikkawa & D. D. Awschalom

Authors

  1. J. M. Kikkawa
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  2. D. D. Awschalom
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence toD. D. Awschalom.

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kikkawa, J., Awschalom, D. Lateral drag of spin coherence in gallium arsenide.Nature 397, 139–141 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/16420

Download citation