Photo-induced pure spin currents in quantum wells
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2007-05-23 v1 Materials Science
Abstract
As is well known the absorption of circularly polarized light in semiconductors results in optical orientation of electron spins and helicity-dependent electric photocurrent, and the absorption of linearly polarized light is accompanied by optical alignment of electron momenta. Here we show that the absorption of unpolarized light in a quantum well (QW) leads to generation of a pure spin current, although both the average electron spin and electric current are vanishing.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0501673,
title = {Photo-induced pure spin currents in quantum wells},
author = {S. A. Tarasenko and E. L. Ivchenko},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0501673},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
To be published in Proc. 13th Int. Symp. "Nanostructures: Physics and Technology", St.Petersburg, Russia, 2005